Sacrificial Treasure
by Emuri
Summary: After keeping her pregnancy a secret from Ichigo for months, she finally tells him. Ichigo still hasn't fully come to forgive her, but loves her nonetheless. But what does their future entail?
1. Chapter I

Okay, so wow. I haven't written anything at all in the longest time and I thought I might as well give up on writing in general (since it's just a hobby anyway), but I came across this story I wrote over a year ago and I thought I'd share it with you guys. I hope you enjoy it. (:

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_An Altering Tale_

Orihime gawked back at her reflection in the school bathroom mirror. Her skin was chalky pale and blanched, ragged. Slightly dark bags blemished the skin under her large grey eyes due to lack of sleep from studying for her final exams. Her breathing had finally returned to normal after more than a few minutes of panting.

Her weary, drained body had just undergone another round of regurgitating any sort of contents inhabiting her stomach. She was only ever so grateful that she was able to escape from her classroom, arrive at an unoccupied stall, and hold her ridiculously long auburn hair back just in time before the revolting vomit left her system.

She leaned over the sink, holding her lengthy tresses back with one small hand and allowing the sink tap water to trickle and fall into her cupped palm. She rinsed out her mouth with the artificial taste of the tap water, gurgling, spitting, and rinsing as much as she possibly could. Having this nauseating taste in her mouth had always made her need to throw up yet again. At this point, she had been considering carrying a few packs of gum with her wherever she went.

Feeling as though most of the sickening flavor in her mouth was gone, she rinsed her face and attempted to practice a few bright smiles in the mirror. Never in her existence had she had to attempt to fake smiles, excluding times during her childhood, but especially throughout the current stage in her life.

She was the happiest teenager alive. She had an amazing group of friends, one whom she could go to for any dilemma, especially her two best friends Tatsuki and Rukia. But even better, she had literally received a dream come true. Ever since the summer before her first year of high school, she had started crushing on a certain boy in her neighborhood and little did she know that he would returned those simple and pure feelings when they had begun attending the same high school a few months later. They had become friends quite quickly and soon afterwards both their romantic feelings for each other bloomed and they both fell into a willing relationship full of love and care. One of almost three years. And during the course of those three years, they had gone through so many joyous and perilous experiences. She was truly grateful and she loved him with all her heart, but with the latest event that occurred in her life, she could not help but only think about that event and how much her life was slowly changing.

Surrendering to her pitiful attempts of smiling (when she really did not feel like doing so), she exited from the small bathroom and walked down the hall back to the classroom she had abruptly ran out of.

Entering the spacious room crowded with occupied seats and curious eyes, she strolled in quite awkwardly, her eyes glued to the floor, fingers laced together behind her back.

"Inoue-san, are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse or anything of that nature?" Ochi-sensei worriedly asked the self-conscious teen.

"Um… no, no, that's fine. I'm all right now, just a… false alarm," she guiltily lied through a minuscule hushed whisper. She added in one of her bright trademark smiles knowing that would somewhat reassure her teacher.

"All right, well, if you need to go to the nurse later on or something, you can go without my permission if it's urgent," she declared, then motioning with her hand for Orihime to get back in her seat.

Orihime nodded and quickly shuffled back into her chair. She could feel most of the class' eyes on her, but the students finally just went back to doodling in their notebooks or texting due to Ochi-sensei's drawling lecture on some shenanigans they would consider a foreign language.

But for those who actually did care for her, their eyes were all still on her. Eyes filled with sincere concern and apprehension because none of them had a single clue as to what was going on with the usually jubilant girl, not even Ichigo, her boyfriend. Her behavior was gradually changing and not only did he notice this alteration, but her friends as well. Ones who were growing anxious and troubled for her day by day.

She knew they were all staring at her, burning holes through her clothing with their anxious gazes. Just with the acknowledgement of those actions from her friends, brought her to feeling even more at fault. She did not desire for the people she cared about to go through anything difficult, especially if she was the doer and responsible for their stress.

Ichigo just watched Orihime intently, following her every motion with slight movements of his light brown eyes. He could not help but feel fretful about whatever it was that was bothering her. He knew she had not been feeling very well as of late, but he did not expect her having a minor bug to get her so down. Because of this, he was helplessly drawing the conclusion that there was definitely something more. Unfortunately, he had absolutely no knowledge as to what that "something more" possibly could have been. Just that mere fact, tore him to shreds. Her keeping anything from him was so unfamiliar and beyond him. Just grasping the meager idea, he was finding to be so truly difficult, thorny.

But he recognized that if it was a matter which was strictly significant, she would most definitely come to him and express whatever it was that was weighing her down. Chaining her light heart. Trapping her in a cage. She would, wouldn't she?

Ichigo grabbed at his bright orange hair in frustration, turning away from Orihime. He could not begin to doubt her. What kind of a boyfriend of almost three years would ever do that? But even more, how could he question her when all she ever did was display true reliability and faithfulness?

He would wait and linger for her, without complaining, to tell him whatever it was that was burdening her. Just for her. Just for them.

Deciding to distract herself instead of dwelling on this current issue, the auburn-haired young woman rested her chin in her hand and fell into a daydream as she faced the window, staring out into the light blue sky and listening to the merry birds as they called to each other in a melodious song of beckoning.

Orihime and her friends congregated up on the rooftop above their school for their lunch period. Whenever the weather was well enough, the sun exuding sufficient heat, they would always go up to the roof to eat their lunches. It had become an unspoken ritual over the years and their entire group subconsciously and contentedly obliged.

"Ugh, I am really not looking forward to these final exams," Arisawa Tatsuki grunted. Tatsuki had been Orihime's best friend since they were children having gone to the same elementary school together and defending her from bullies. A clique of girls had constantly harassed Orihime because she had gorgeous long auburn tresses and eventually even went as far as to cutting off those beautiful locks. Tatsuki, not even knowing Orihime, had protected her and tackled the snooty girls. Ever since then, they had been best friends.

"Tell me about it. I haven't even started studying yet," Ichigo groaned, to Orihime's left.

"Final exams aren't that tedious. If you study, then you should be fine. It's not that stressful," Ishida Uryu declared, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. Ishida with his long jet black hair was a ridiculously studious learner. He emanated pure intelligence in the way he spoke and all through his actions as well. He very much knew how to tick off his friends when it came to topics like these.

"Shut up, Ishida. No one needs your input," Ichigo retorted.

"It's not my fault you haven't been studying and just because of your true lack of knowledge, you will fail anyway, Kurosaki," Ishida glared.

Just before Ichigo could even snap a nasty reply back at Ishida, Orihime simply place a hand on his shoulder, signaling for him to stop the war that would have never ended between the two rivals.

After feeling her small hand on his shoulder, he looked toward her, silently letting her know he would stop. Being this physically close to her, he examined the bags under eyes and her usually natural rosiness' absence.

Observing the distress in his eyes, she instantaneously looked away and to her convenience, her friend, Kuchiki Rukia, offered her some food. The dish Rukia was holding out to her, Donburi, contained a myriad of ingredients that's smell sent Orihime's stomach lurching.

She immediately covered her mouth and nose to block out the smell and shield the world from any possible bile which would escape her mouth.

'_Breathe Orihime, breath. Breath Orihime, breathe,' _she consistently and repeatedly told herself. Those words soon became somewhat easier to apply to her actions when she felt Ichigo's large hand rubbing soothing tiny circles on her back. Shortly after, the urge to vomit subsided and she felt it more uncomplicated to breathe again. She gratefully smiled at her boyfriend for consoling her.

"Hime, why are you even in school if you feel so sick?" Tatsuki asked.

Orihime's eyes grew wide at the question, not expecting it in the slightest. "Um… well, I couldn't miss any schoolwork since finals are next week! And besides I only feel sick every once in a while. It's kind of strange actually. It's like I'm not always sick… just sometimes. It happens in intervals."

"Wow, that is somewhat odd," Ishida said, their other friend Sado quietly nodding his in agreement. "I don't think I could even quite come up with an explanation for that. Maybe those are the symptoms to some disease. You should go to the doctors so they can examine you."

Orihime's eyes bugged. A disease? That was too scary of a thought.

Ishida's words were just worrying Ichigo even further. A scowl danced across his brows as his features gradually darkened. Orihime felt him tensing beside her. "Why don't you be quiet and not say things like that, eh, Ishida?"

"Yeah, Ishida! Orihime, what do you feel though? At the sight of my Donburi, you looked as if you were going to vomit. And I assume that's what you did today during class when ran out of the classroom…," Rukia awkwardly asked.

"Um… hehe, yeah. And I'm sorry if I'm concerning you guys, but it's probably just a small bug and nothing serious at all," she smiled nervously. Only she herself knew this was something much more than serious and she felt ridiculously guilty for lying to her best friends.

Although her hesitation was merely minor, they all noted it nonetheless. But out of graciousness, they decided to act as though they brushed it off.

"We hope you feel better soon," Sado spoke out of the blue, his friends all nodding their heads in harmony.

"Ah, thank you very much everyone," she smiled genuinely. A smile they all observed to be a true one and not forced. Feeling somewhat satisfied, they all commenced in speaking about their weekend plans which would never occur due to their parents forcing them to be stuck in their houses to study for their final exams.

Hearing the bell ring, signaling the end of their lunch period, they all packed away their leftovers and strolled back to class smiling and laughing.

Ichigo felt as though he was the only one who was not pleased in the slightest.

Sensing the beautifully natural heat emanating from the sun, Orihime basked in its warmth, spreading out her arms at both sides, face towards the vast blue sky. She truly adored this hot and shining weather. Flowers were in full bloom, the sun was shining at its brightest, the birds chirped and sang, and it signaled the end of school year which was blissful for most students. This is what happy weather was for Orihime and when the weather was happy, so was she.

"Two more weeks of school left and then summer vacation and then college!" she exclaimed with a bright smile.

"Mhm," Ichigo shortly responded as they both walked to her apartment together.

Frowning at his dumpy and fruitless response, Orihime asked, "Is something wrong, Ichi?" Although she asked him this question, she knew all too well he was not all right in the slightest and she was most likely the culprit for making him feel this way.

Instead of responding at all, he just kept silent the whole way to her apartment. This completely dampened Orihime's previously bright mood. Ichigo rarely treated her this way and when he did, she felt absolutely terrible.

She knew she was keeping what she knew she shouldn't from Ichigo, but she just did not know whether she was prepared for the adventure of telling him what was really wrong with her. She never kept anything from him, but she found it easier to keep secrets that were a little too much to grasp or affected not only her but others as well. This secret… she did not even know where she would start or how she would go about the conversation whenever it was when she would tell him, albeit she did not plan on informing him any time soon.

She had gone so astray in her thoughts, that she barely almost noticed they had arrived at their destination. She pulled out her key as they arrived at her apartment door. Her hand shook as she held the key. Pondering so much on the current circumstances made her so incredibly nervous that she couldn't even hold the key right.

Ichigo sighed, noticing her obvious trouble. He grabbed the key from her hand and unlocked the door. Swinging the door open, they both entered the small living room and slipped their shoes off.

Orihime took a peek at Ichigo and noted how pensive he appeared. She was not the only one constantly lost in her thoughts today. Knowing better than to bother him, she slid into the kitchen to get them both some ice cream. She noted that ice cream was one of the only foods she could actually consume without feeling the need to throw up.

She filled his glass bowl with chocolate ice cream and hers with strawberry. She smiled to herself as she filled her bowl. The fact that strawberry was her favorite flavor for almost all sweet foods was not on purpose, but quite more coincidental. That always made her smile. She would always think of Ichigo when it came to strawberries.

She stored away the cartons of ice cream in the fridge, picked up the two cold bowls, and sauntered into the living room. She became aware of the fact that Ichigo was still drowning in a sea of deliberation, paying almost no attention to his surroundings whatsoever. She placed his bowl of the chocolate frozen treat on the table with a slight clatter, sitting down and already digging into her ice cream.

At the sound of the bowl touching the small table, Ichigo woke up from his reverie with a subtle jolt and examined the scene before him. Orihime was devouring her ice cream like a bug eyed child while a lone bowl of untouched chocolate ice cream lay before him. He faintly smiled at his girlfriend's actions; she was way too sweet and adorable for his own good. He did not deserve her after doubting her numerous times today.

He took in a deep breath to brush aside any uncertainties and grabbed a spoonful of ice cream and swiped it into his mouth. He allowed the cold treat to melt on his hot tongue, savoring the taste. Oh how he loved chocolate and the way this ice cream was cooling off his hot body.

In view of the fact that Orihime had already demolished her strawberry treat, she sat idly watching Ichigo relish his ice cream. She was content to see him so tranquil for once today. But soon that serenity was replaced with his previous behavior, only this time concern flashed across his eyes. Caught off guard by his sudden change in aura, she shakily sighed and felt it was the time to tell him what had been on her mind as of late.

"Ichi… I have to tell you something," she nervously whispered, her gulp being almost completely audible.

Ichigo was essentially taken aback at the fact that she was going to tell him whatever was going on so soon. _'Maybe this has been going on a lot longer than I would have known…' _he thought to himself.

He took her petite hand in his from across the small table, nodding his head in encouragement to continue.

She did feel fairly uplifted with the gentle actions he displayed, but nothing could really muster the discomfort and true dread that racked her body mentally and physically.

"Um… hm… er… I don't know how to say this…," she shyly began.

"Hime," he said, forcing her to look into his eyes, sadness evidently present in his. "You know you can tell me anything and everything. Why should whatever this is you have to tell me be so hard? I love you; don't be scared."

The heart melting words rolling off his tongue struck her with an intensity she could not perceive. They had her tearing; she had to look away from him.

"There's… there's someone… else in the picture."

'_Someone else? What does she mean so-? She…'_

"You cheated on me?" he let go of her fragile hand, standing up with incredible speed, towering over her shaking form.

She looked into his eyes from her vantage point with true terror, shaking, her eyes larger than saucers. She could not even respond to his bellowing. _I'm such an idiot! Why am I always such an idiot? Why did I have to say that to him?_

"You're kidding me right?" he unsteadily asked.

"N-no, Ichi…"

He threw his arms above him, lacing his fingers together behind his head, frantically making a full turn in a circle.

Orihime could not believe, in the slightest, that she had chosen the worst set of words to express to him her current situation. Everything was heading in a completely different direction than anticipated. Everything was presently being misunderstood. She was in too much shock to even utter a word as she gawked at him wide-eyed.

He froze in his tirade and looked at her with the most wounded expression she would ever witness in her life. "I guess I wasn't wrong in doubting you so much lately, was I?" With those words said, he grabbed his bag and stormed out of her apartment, slamming the door in the process.

She winced when he slammed the door, but even more when he verbalized those words. _'I guess I wasn't wrong in doubting you so much lately, was I?' _Those words continually rang in her ears, a crystal clear tear cascading down her cheek, framing half her chin as it descended to the carpeted floor.

"N-no, no, no…," each syllable she uttered increased in volume until she was almost screaming. She dropped on her knees, feeling reality rush in all too quick of a few seconds. Why had things turned out this way?

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><p>Please review if you'd like and let me know what you think. Do not leave any rude comments. Thank you. (:<p>

~Yono~


	2. Chapter II

I apologize for the length of this chapter, but I feel like the chapter should end where it does. It's a tad bit slow, but sometimes that's needed in a story. Thank you for all the reviews and comments! They just help me to improve the story. All your unanswered questions will most definitely be answered soon, just not now lol.

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter II_

This walk home was the longest walk he had ever taken. Nothing could get his mind off of what had just happened. Nothing could get his mind off the new knowledge he had just learned. He had never felt so hurt, so rejected, so used, or so broken. His thoughts continued to weigh him down and even time itself. The usual five minute walk from Orihime's apartment felt like an hour. He thought it would never end until he reached his doorstep, staring at it miserably, standing there for what had to have been at least five whole minutes.

He opened the door and slipped off his shoes, making as little noise as possible. He did not want to attract any attention and have his sisters see him this way or more importantly, his father. But of course, fortune was not something which was on his side this whole day. The next thing he knew, his father's foot was in his face as he came crashing down onto the wooden floor.

"What is your deal old man? Can I for once, go to my bedroom without you almost killing me?"

His father laughed a hearty laugh. "Oh Ichigo! You are just so moody all the time, aren't you? Teenagers… they never want to spend time with their fathers," he sniffled, a large unnatural teardrop forming in his eye.

"Tsk." Ichigo padded up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door behind him. He was surprised that his dad didn't even bother following him or even landing another move on him.

Kurosaki Isshin just stared at his son's back until he disappeared behind his bedroom door. He knew something was very wrong. Although Ichigo was being his usual self, his father knew him well enough to know something serious had come to pass, so all Isshin did was pray and let him go.

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><p>Ichigo lay on his bed helplessly. Helpless. Oh, how he had never felt so helpless before. Nothing he did or nothing anyone did, for that matter, would change the fact that Orihime had cheated on him, lied to him. He felt so crushed and he did not like it at all, but nothing in his being could make him man up right now… as much as he wanted to. So instead, he stared at the ceiling long enough to forget it was there.<p>

Everything that had happened today, passed through his mind almost like a movie. He just kept replaying the scene in her apartment over and over again in his mind. It just would not end and it was torture. He just kept hearing those terrifyingly distressing words and he could not shut them out. He covered his ears, closed his eyes shut, and ground his teeth, doing anything he possibly could to get rid of her voice, her image, the truth.

Everything had been at least close to normal this morning and now… everything had changed. His love for her was so strong that this trial could possibly be his ruin. Unbeknownst to him, hot streams of salty water poured from his eyes. He touched the drops of water and stared at them, establishing the fact that they were tears. _I can't believe I'm crying. I haven't cried since Mom died._For some reason, acknowledging this fact just made his pain more intense and he cried even more, letting go of the false pretense, even before himself, letting go of the man he wanted to be and just let himself cry. Crying turned into sobbing, sobbing turned into heart clenching muffled screams, and those screams turned into weariness. Soon, his body became exhausted from all the weeping and he fell asleep.

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><p>"OHHHHHHH! Wake up Ichigo!" Isshin howled, jumping on top of his sleepy son's body.<p>

Ichigo grunted into his pillow.

"What was that son? I can't hear you!"

"Leeb meh aronnnne. I habb an alarm clock, ya know. I don't need you waking me up every morning."

"Why are you being so boring my son?"

At that mention, Ichigo immediately arose and punched his father in the face. "Now that's more like it! You have to be at school sooooon~ get ready!"

Ichigo glared at his father for what had to have been at least a minute, his father's cheeky little grin never faltering, not even for a second. Ichigo rolled his eyes, getting out of bed and walking toward the bathroom.

"Son."

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, of course I am. Wh-" and then it all flooded back to him in a mere second. He had forgotten about everything after being passed out for ten hours. He hadn't even had a single dream. Dreamless sleeps were his favorite. But now that his father had asked him such a foreign question, he remembered all of yesterday's events. All he could see was Orihime and her beautiful russet hair and big grey eyes filled with tears and then her mouth uttering the very words that made his whole world come crashing down. _There's… there's someone… else in the picture_. He looked down at the ground, away from his father's gaze, unable to hide the emotions dancing across his eyes. He looked up at Isshin and even forced a tiny, pathetic smile. "Don't worry about me old man. I'm fine," he lied, scratching the back of his head.

All that Ichigo received in return was his father's extremely concerned look (which was incredibly rare) and a very long dragged out silence.

Ichigo dropped his hand to his side and decided to drop his act too. Being completely serious now he said, "Seriously, don't worry about me Dad. I think I'll be able to handle this on my own."

"I don't know what happened son, but I've just about been through everything a man could go through. I'm here if you need someone to talk to."

Ichigo smirked. "Thanks old man." Maybe his father did not know it, but Ichigo really meant that and he knew Isshin meant what he said as well. He was extremely grateful for his father's offer. It was moments like these when he felt closer to his dad.

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><p>Ichigo had no idea what he was going to do when he got to school. The whole walk there, the only thing he could deliberate was how he would act when he saw Orihime. Should he act normal for the sake of his friends? Should he completely ignore her? Just that thought alone twisted his gut. Ignoring her would probably be the best thing to do and yet the hardest. How could he even bring himself to ignore or avoid her? It was just going to be way too difficult. And at the moment, he really considered turning around and going back home to the soft comfort of his bed where he could run away and not have to deal with his currently painful issue. <em>No, I am not going to run away from this… or from her. I'm not a coward. Ughhh! This is too hard…<em>

He stopped in front of her apartment like he usually would on any normal day. _Tsk… normal ain't the word anymore._ But just for a moment, he pretended as though it really were a normal day, as though nothing bad had happened. He closed his eyes, as if doing that would make yesterday morning come back and all the mornings before that as well… when he would wait for her in this very spot and watch her bouncing down the steps with a huge smile plastered to her face. She was always just so genuinely happy to see him. '_I'm the luckiest girl in the world for you to be the very first thing I see in the morning!'_And then he would kiss her forehead every time she said that. He never got sick of hearing the same line almost every morning, but right now, he was sick to his stomach at the thought. Snapping out of his daydream, he realized he was still standing in front of her apartment and the last thing he needed was for her to see him doing just that. He took one last glance at her abode and was nervous the rest of the walk to school. He realized this was his first walk to school alone, without her by his side and it would be like this from this point forward. All these realizations and reflections made him want to cry again, but he wouldn't. He would not cry because of her.

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><p>"Yo Ichigo!" greeted Tatsuki as he walked into the classroom.<p>

"Hey Tatsuki," he smiled.

Tatsuki just stared at him openly, very shocked. Ichigo realized he was trying way too hard at acting like he was "okay" so he immediately replaced his fake smile with a scowl.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she eyed him wearily.

"Eh? Oh nothing. Nothing at all. Why?"

"I don't know. You never smile," she laughed. "Wow, that's actually really sad Ichigo."

"Yeah."

"Hey, where's Orihime? She always walks to school with you. Where is she? Oh goodness, don't tell me she's still sick. That girl just does not know how to take care of herself. It drives me nuts!"

"Tatsuki calm down. Orihime knows how to take care of herself. Stop with that nonsense." Ichigo found himself defending her without even meaning to and that alone made him angry. "I have no idea why she isn't here though, okay?" he grunted, trying to cover up his self-anger.

"Sheesh, fine. I'm gonna call her then because she's never late for class and class starts in two minutes."

"Whatever."

What Tatsuki stated was true though. Orihime never missed a day of school. So far this year, she had a perfect attendance record which she had come to be very proud of. On top of that, finals were next week and all Orihime spoke about was studying for them and how it would never be acceptable that she miss a single day of school until the exams were over. Missing a day of school was completely out of her character and unfortunately, Ichigo found himself worrying about her. _What if she's throwing up again? What if she passed out? She's all alone and has no one to help her. She's been getting really sick lately. Maybe I can…_ but he stopped himself right there, getting angry at himself yet again. Why should he be thinking of how much pain she was in or the different ways of how he could be helping her when she was most likely doing the opposite and probably did not even care about he felt? She obviously didn't since she cheated on him!

He slammed his fist on his desk, frustrated at his stupid mind and just his pure helplessness. His friends turned toward him concerned. "It's okay Ichigo. Orihime's probably fine. She'll make herself better in no time," Sado said.

"I don't know about that. She doesn't pick up her phone which is really odd, but I guess you're right Sado. She'll be fine soon… I hope."

"It's not that!" Ichigo yelled, standing up.

His friends stared at him astonished. "Then what is it?" Tatsuki asked, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Nothing. Just forget about it," he mumbled furiously, dashing out of the room.

"Oi!" Ochi-sensei yelled. "Why are you running out of the classroom like that? You almost bumped into me you delinquent!"

As Ochi-sensei continued muttering to herself irately, Ichigo's friends stared at the door Ichigo had just left through and then at each other. Any reason as to why their friend was acting so strangely was beyond them and they were extremely worried.

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><p>"UGH! Why did I even come to school today!" he yelled to himself. "I can't even take them talking about her. I'm such a pity," he said, his voice turning into a mere whisper. He stared at the floor, eyes wide, yet expressionless.<p>

"Kurosaki."

Ichigo whirled around to find that Ishida strolled right into the bathroom in an all-knowing, yet apprehensive way. It ticked Ichigo off. "What do you want?"

"I don't know what's happening to you or why you're like this, but your behavior is concerning all of us, even me."

"Well, I don't need your pity, okay? So just leave me alone."

"Did something happen with you and Inoue?"

Ichigo just stared at Ishida. Ishida always had a way of getting to the bottom of things without even having to know the basis of a situation and it really irked Ichigo at this very moment. He did not like the fact that Ishida could so coolly see through him and the situation. Ichigo grew very irritated at this fact because he wanted to keep up the façade as long as he possibly could.

"Shut up Ishida. I don't need you putting your nose where it doesn't belong, so leave me alone," he demanded as he brushed past Ishida and walked out of the bathroom door.

Ishida just smirked, knowing he was right, but his smirk instantly turned into a frown at the realization that he was right. Being right this time was not a good thing. _What could have possibly happened between those two?_

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><p>Thank you for reading! I know that not a lot went on in this chapter, but there are some things which need to be laid out like in any story. Please leave reviews! I'd like to know what you think. (:<p>

~Yono~


	3. Chapter III

Thank you so much for the alerts, favorites, and reviews. I honestly do appreciate it! I personally don't really like some of the dialogue in this chapter, but I just hope it isn't too big of a deal. I know you want some interaction between Ichigo and Orihime, but you won't be getting that now. That will **most likely **be happening in the next chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it nonetheless. (:

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter III_

Orihime woke up from the best sleep she had had in weeks. She felt extremely relaxed for once. It was such an oddity. Stretching her arms over head, she sat up and looked at the clock. "Twelve o'clock?" she gasped, her eyes bugging out of their sockets.

Great. She had overslept due to the sheer exhaustion of crying all night and trying to make extremely difficult decisions. Her bottom lip jutted out, forming a cute little pout. "I can't go to school now that I'm four hours late. It's completely pointless and just stupid if I go. Awwww~, why did I let this happen?" she exclaimed to herself. It was moments like these when she became disappointed in herself and just wanted to crawl back under the covers and pretend she was five years old again.

She rubbed her well-rested eyes until she started seeing static and colors. "Owiee. Too bright," she muttered.

She padded her tiny feet across the carpeted hallway to the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. Although she had gotten about fifteen hours of asleep, all that stared back at her was death. The bags under her eyes were not as dark as yesterday, but they were deeper. Her skin was pale and her eyes were bloodshot because of the extra amount of moisture that visited them last night.

She placed her hand on her face and let it slowly drag down her cheek until it fell at her side and swung aimlessly. All the stress of finals, the two latest events in her life, and just lack of sleep in general were very much getting to her and she did not like it one bit. Stress was the first thing she should stay away from. Stress could cause her body many symptoms and then…

She turned her body sideways and looked at the mirror again. She touched her belly gently and very slowly, drawing circle after circle, letting reality seep in just a tad bit more and more with each circle her hand make.

_Maybe this will be a good thing. No, it definitely is. I'm scared, but I'm actually kind of excited,_ she thought happily. She looked down at her abdomen and started poking it. _I'm starting to get kind of squishy. Ah, I see a little little bump. This is so cool!_ She was smiling now. Maybe all the relief to her stress would be this baby. She already began to love the child after she started to register everything. The more she realized the truth, the more her excitement grew, but her fear grew along with those positive feelings. She was scared of the future and what held especially since her baby was only six months away from entering the world!

As of now, hiding her baby bump was extremely simple. It was barely noticeable underneath her uniform or a loose, flowing shirt, but it was noticeable when she wore a tight shirt. _Okay, note to self. I gotta be careful not to wear any tight shirts!_ she thought to herself determinedly, pumping a fist in the air.

The fact that she even had to hide this from anyone though was what got her down yet again. Pregnancy was truly a scary thought. She had the ability to create another human, another soul. It boggled her mind. This was a very big deal, but she could not tell anyone. Who knows what they would think of her, of the baby, of Ichigo, of just the situation in general.

Even telling Ichigo was now out of question. He probably hated her now. Even though he hated her for something she did not even do, it didn't change anything for her.

After hours of shedding tears the night before, she had finally calmed down. In those moments of tranquility, she had made the decision to keep the truth from Ichigo. She would not tell him she was pregnant with his baby and she would allow him to continue to believe that she had cheated on him. In her head, it all seemed like a good plan and she was firm in wanting to stick with it and perform it to her fullest efficacy. It made sense to her the most, even if it truly hurt her to do so. _There's nothing else I can do. This is the _only_ thing I can do. It's for the best. He was doubting me anyway. He was doubting me before I even told him anything at all. If he was doubting me before, he is going to doubt me again. If he doesn't even trust me, then it's best to just let him fall out of love with me. I just have to let him go his own separate way, so he can get over me. It's for the best. He doesn't trust me, so he shouldn't even be with me. Maybe he'll be able to find someone else he can trust and spend the rest of his life with and have babies with. It's for the best. It's for the best. It's for the… _She continued to repeat the mantra to herself, attempting to convince herself that her plan had to be put to action. The fact that he was doubting her had hurt her and cut her so deeply, she could not get the reality out of her head. That reality almost weighed more than the fact that she was pregnant. She just had to follow through with this. She just had to.

Soon enough, an abundance of tears started flowing freely from her wide and terrified eyes. She slowly slid to the floor against the bathroom cabinet and put her head in her hands, grabbing fistfuls of hair. She did not know why she was allowing herself to go through with this plan, but she believed it in her heart that she had to. She would not allow the man she loved to date someone he could not trust, so she would just alleviate the burden for him.

Although her actions seemed selfless, they were actually quite selfish.

* * *

><p>It was already an hour after dismissal and Orihime lay on her couch watching sappy romance shows while studying for final exams. Even she knew that combination would get her nowhere productive in the slightest. "Why don't you just tell her that you know she loves you? It's not fair to her! Why don't you just realize that you love Taiga, Ryuugi? she sniffled, exclaiming her sheer disapproval of the unfolding events in the show. She wiped a tear away with her finger and blew her tiny dainty nose into a soft tissue.<p>

At this time after school, Ichigo would have been right her sitting beside her like he would have on any other normal day, but things were not the usual at all. She already missed just his presence alone and it made her feel forlorn and sad. He had been her company for the past three years in her tiny home. She had gotten so used it, never thinking she would have to let it all go one day. She scanned her small apartment, realizing how tiny it really was, but also noting that she was the one who felt small in a huge apartment with no one else to share it with.

She picked up her cell phone and stared at the wallpaper. It was a picture of Ichigo kissing her cheek as she giggled madly, rosy blush staining her cheeks at his action. Tatsuki had managed to snap a candid photo of the two of them through very sneaky means; yet again Orihime was very careless when it came to her phone. Sometimes she forgot she even had one because she barely used it. She only used it to text Tatsuki or Ichigo whenever she needed something or vice versa.

Orihime sighed, pressing the "Create Message" button. She really wanted to text Ichigo and just ask him how he was doing, to tell him she missed him so much and that she wanted to be nowhere but in his arms, but she could not. He had to go on believing the worst about her, so instead she just blankly stared at the screen, knowing it was stupid to message him at all. Orihime thumped herself on the head. "Silly me! What was I thinking?" she laughed nervously. She clicked the "End" button and shut her phone closed.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Her eyes immediately shot open wide. _What if it's Ichigo? Is he here to yell at me for being such a terrible girlfriend? Or is he going to make my fantasy come true? Coming back, running to me and begging for forgiveness? _Orihime groaned, knowing she was such a dreamer. How could she even expect him to come back after what she had "done."

She slipped on her silky robe and fuzzy bunny slippers and paused before the door. The doorbell rang once again. She just stared at the door, deliberating her current circumstances. She squeezed her eyes shut hoping it was not Ichigo, mustering all her strength and opened the door.

Fortunately for her, it was her beloved friend Tatsuki. "Tatsuki! I'm so happy to see you!" she cried out, a huge smile stretching across her face.

Tatsuki smiled back. "I'm glad to see you're chirping like your usual self. Haven't seen that side of you in a while," she said jokingly, yet matter-of-factly.

"A-ah… sorry… it's just studying for final exams and me being sick is all. Lots of stress, ya know!" she justified, scratching the back of her head.

"Haha, yeah, I know. Me too and I'm getting so tired of it," Tatsuki said as she walked in, slipping off her shoes and crashing onto the couch. "Ew… what are you watching Hime?"

"Toradora! It is the best anime I have ever watched. I've been watching it for the past four hours, heh heh. Oh, and I've been studying!"

Tatsuki eyed her warily, a question evident in her brow. "Really now? You call this studying?" she asked, gesturing toward the papers with small drops of water on them, which slid down the pages smearing the ink.

"Oh no!" Orihime gasped, rushing over to retrieve the papers. She frantically tried drying them with her robe, but silk did not really help in doing so. "I didn't realize the show was making me cry so much!"

Tatsuki just laughed at her baffled, disheveled friend sniffling over the tiniest issue. "It's okay Orihime. You smeared through, like, four lines of notes and only smudged a few words. I have notes anyway. I thought I'd come over here to study with you because I just can't concentrate at home right now. Too much going on over there and besides I wanted to see how you were doing since you didn't come to school today, but I can see you are a mess…" she chuckled.

"Ahhh~, thank you Tatsuki! U-um… yeah… I kind of overslept, but I didn't mean to. I'm sorry! I slept through your calls and everything. I didn't realize how exhausted I really was until I woke up this morning and then I saw your calls and I felt guilty for not picking up! And then I couldn't call you because you were still in schoo-" She stopped her sentence short at the look on Tatsuki's face. She had gone on rambling and her best friend looked like a cross between annoyed, holding back laughter, and angry. It was a very unpleasant sight to see in all honesty.

Finally relieving her face from its awkward position, Tatsuki drawled out a long audible breath. "Why do you always worry me Orihime? Gah, whatever, I have to stop treating you like a baby. I know you can take care of yourself. Even Ichigo thinks you can," she laughed.

Orihime's eyes opened wide at the mention of his name and her heart began to beat furiously within her chest. She stared down at the carpet beneath her to hide her face or any sudden change in emotion. _That's right. Tatsuki doesn't know about what happened with Ichigo. She doesn't know anything that's been going on with me lately. I feel so guilty for holding all this back from her, but I just don't know if I'm ready to tell her anything. This is all too fresh, too new. I need some time…_

"Woah woah, what's wrong?" Tatsuki asked, a worried expression etched in her features.

Her best friend's question woke her up from her tragic train of thoughts. "Eh? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all! Why do you ask?"

"What do you mean why do I ask? Do you think I'm stupid, Hime?"

"No…"

"Your eyes got all big and round like you were scared or shocked or something and then you just looked down at the floor all sad. You are really bad at hiding your emotions sometimes. You're too obvious about it. Now, come on, spit it out. What's on your mind?"

"I'm serious. It's nothing! I was just caught off guard because… I thought I felt like I had to throw up again… and then I looked down so I could concentrate on making it go down!" Orihime untruthfully explained, albeit happy that she even came up with such a good excuse. She mentally gave herself a pat on the back.

Tatsuki stare at her very warily, through tiny slits. "Hmph, all right. I guess I have to believe you since you really have been sick lately. That reminds me, how have you been feeling?"

Orihime felt so terrible for lying to her friend especially since Tatsuki was here because she was concerned with her wellbeing. She sighed. "I'm still pretty nauseous and I can only eat certain foods, but other than that, I've been pretty good actually. Oh wait, and I've just been more exhausted than I usually am. You could always blame that on studying for exams, but I think it's because I've been sick too."

"You don't look like you have a fever or anything though. And there are definitely no signs of a cold. I have no idea what you could possibly be sick with. You should go to the doctor. I'll go with you if you want."

"Eh? Oh no no no no no, that's okay! You don't have to do that for me!" she begged nervously, laughing a bit to cover up her trepidation.

"I can't believe you haven't gone to see a doctor yet though… Well, actually I can believe that. Sounds just like you. Come on, I insist."

"But does it have to be now?" Orihime pouted, with big doe eyes.

"Yes! You've been sick for a few days already… or even longer! Come on, let's go," she said, already standing up and turning towards the door.

Orihime slowly got up from her pretzel position on the floor, stalling as long as she could.

"What are you? Crippled now?"

"Wait, I have to get dressed!" Orihime exclaimed happily, grateful to have something to prolong this trip to the doctor.

"Tsk, okay."

As Orihime changed into presentable clothing, she was careful with what shirt she picked. She decided to pick a baggy T-shirt that said "Freshly Oven Baked Buns!" from the bakery she currently worked at. Checking herself in the mirror, she made sure her slightly bulging belly was concealed. She was satisfied with its performance, but she could not help but laugh at the irony in the saying.

"Hime! Come on!"

She creased her forehead, her eyebrows drawing very close together. She was exceptionally worried for how things were going to turn out. _How am I going to get myself out of this one?_

* * *

><p>Orihime really had not gone to the doctor to get checked up and she knew she should have gone a long time ago, but she was scared. What if the doctor told her something was wrong. After all, she already did all the math, calculations, and used all her common sense to come up with the fact that she was three months pregnant. <em>But don't I have to take vitamins or something like that? Okay, maybe I really do need to be here… <em>She looked at her best friend through the corner of her eye to the right of her. Tatsuki was just reading a magazine she obviously did not even look merely interested in, but she wanted to pass the time while waiting for the receptionist to call Orihime's name at least doing something.

Orihime's anxiety continued to build with each passing minute. Not only was she trying to come up with a plan to avoid telling Tatsuki the truth (because she was absolutely positive her friend would ask her what the doctor said and she could really be a terrible liar at times), but she was also just truly nervous for this appointment. It just all seemed to be so scary in an indescribable way. This appointment would just confirm this reality even more and she did not know if she was completely ready for that. She was so anxious she started to silently cry, but quickly wiped away the tears before Tatsuki could catch her.

"Inoue Orihime!" the receptionist yelled.

"Ugh, finally," Tatsuki groaned. After a few seconds, Orihime still had not moved from her seat. "Come on. What are you doing just sitting there?... Hime?"

Orihime drew in a deep long breath and put on a tiny smile. In that moment, she knew she couldn't do this alone. "Tatsuki, can you come with me please?"

"Um… yeah, sure. If you really want me to," Tatsuki kindly said, albeit very confused at the look of anxiousness on Orihime's face. "Of course I'll go with you. Just breathe. It's not a big deal."

Orihime shyly laughed. "No, I think it is."

"What do you mean?" Tatsuki asked, immediately concerned.

"Just come. Let's go."

They walked down a long boring hallway with pale blue walls and several doors on each side, a different patient inside each room, each with different problems of their own. All the doctors were so kind here which is what Orihime really liked about this place.

One of the secretaries led them into a small room with a lone chair, bed, and counter with files and various equipment resting on it. Orihime sat down on the medical bed, the sheet of paper usually preset, crunching underneath her while Tatsuki sat down in the chair.

"Tatsuki, I'm nervous," Orihime whispered, looking down at her twiddling thumbs.

"Why? Scared you have a disease or something? Please, don't let Ishida get to you like that. I'm sure it's nothing big," she said almost carelessly, as if dismissing the matter entirely.

"But it is a big-"

"Why hello there-" the doctor had to look down at her clipboard to catch the patient's name, "... Miss Inoue!" The doctor was very cheerful and obviously happy to be doing her job. That much was evident on her face. She looked to be in about her mid-twenties, petite, long brown hair, and pretty. Orihime instantly felt less nervous after receiving such a positive attitude from this doctor. She breathed a little easier and relaxed more.

"Hello doctor," she smiled. Tatsuki smiled as well, acknowledging the woman.

"All right ladies, what can I do for you?"

"W-well, I've been throwing up a lot lately and I get nauseous a lot of the time…" she said, her fear now coming back quite quickly now that she had to relay her symptoms to the doctor in front of Tatsuki. She didn't know how she was going to let her friend know slowly. She was starting to think it was impossible.

"That could be due to a number of things. Any fever-like symptoms?"

"No…"

"Then tell me any other symptoms you've been having."

"Um… well, I get tired really easily. My back has been hurting. I can only eat certain foods. Some of them make me nauseous just by… smelling them."

"Okay. Have you had a delayed or missed menstrual cycle?" the doctor asked, already knowing what direction this appointment was heading in.

This question really hit the ball out of the park and Orihime didn't really know if she should keep going on with this lie or just tell the truth. "Um… yes."

Tatsuki sharply looked over at Orihime, eyebrows furrowed. "What does that have to do with anything?" she asked, even though, in the back of her mind, she was already guessing what the answer to that question was.

The doctor obviously noticing Tatsuki didn't know the truth of the matter and assuming Orihime was hiding it, planned what she would do and ignored Tatsuki's question. "Miss, I'd like you to leave the room for a few moments because I'm going to do a urine test," speaking to Tatsuki.

"O-okay, but you'll call me back in, right?"

"Yes," the doctor smiled. Tatsuki left the room.

"I'm sorry doctor. I-I already know I'm pregnant. I mean, look at my stomach," she said, exposing the flesh.

"Well, it's always nice to be safe and check anyway and if you definitely are, then you'll need some prenatal vitamins and such that you'll need to be taking."

"Okay, thank you."

After the urine test was complete, the kind doctor returned to the room where Tatsuki and Orihime sat nervously. Orihime had given the doctor permission to declare the results while Tatsuki was in the room. They had discussed it while Tatsuki had been waiting outside.

"Okay, well, I have the results," she stated slowly, looking at Orihime with knowing eyes. The silence continued to draw on until the doctor was positive Orihime was comfortable enough with the doctor sharing the information. Orihime looked down at her hands in her lap, letting her hair cascade over her shoulders, hiding the view of her face from Tatsuki.

"Miss Inoue… you are, in fact, three months pregnant."

"What?" Tatsuki exclaimed, shocked to the core. "Are you serious?..." she barely whispered.

Orihime slowly looked up at her friend, scared to meet her eyes. Who knew what she would think of this. "Y-yes…"

"There's gotta be a mistake. You can't be pregnant! You're only eighteen!"

"Honey, it's true. Urine tests are decently accurate when it comes to testing pregnancy and all the symptoms she relayed to me support this as well," the doctor said. "I'm going to take my leave now though. I don't want to intrude. You should come back for a check-up in two weeks, Miss Inoue. Well… it was a pleasure having you both. Have a good day," she smiled, nodded, and left the room.

"Is this really even happening?"

"Yes, Tatsuki. Look," Orihime said. She lifted her shirt a little to show Tatsuki her tiny baby bump.

Shaking her head, she asked, "… but how?... Wait, don't answer that." She shuddered.

"I'm sorry Tatsuki. I would have told you sooner, but I was just so scared. I could barely even accept it myself, let alone tell someone else about it when it hadn't even registered yet."

"Wow, I just can't… believe it. Hime, you're just so young. How are you even going to do this?"

"I know, Tatsuki. I shouldn't have been 'doing anything' with Ichigo to begin with, but I don't even know the answer to that question myself. I think it's all going to work out though," Orihime smiled slightly.

Tatsuki stared at her best friend with a very worried expression. She really wanted to believe that everything was going to be okay, but it was somewhat hard to believe. Both she and Ichigo were very young. They did not have financially supporting jobs. They both hadn't even started college yet. And they both still had some growing up to do too. Really, all of them still had maturing to do, but at least the rest of them were not expecting a child. Having a baby was a big deal. It was a new person they were bringing into the world. No wonder Orihime had been so scared before. Tatsuki could only imagine the emotions and thoughts Orihime was experiencing.

Tatsuki sucked in a deep breath, looking down at the floor. "I really want to believe you, Hime."

A short silence passed between them, both of them thinking of what they would say next.

"Well, I'm going to have to make it work no matter what," Orihime declared, being very serious.

Tatsuki smirked, at least glad to have her determined best friend back. "I hope I might start to believe you, my friend."

* * *

><p>Yes, yes, I know Orihime is an idiot just as much as Ichigo is... well, all opinions vary. Let me know what you think of that!<p>

So that show Orihime was watching is a real anime and it is seriously the best shoujo anime I've ever watched. I highly recommend you guys watching it. I'm still not completely over it and I finished it two weeks ago. :P

All right, well, please review. I would really love it if you did! I want more people to read this. (:

~Yono~


	4. Chapter IV

Hello there again! Thank you for the alerts and reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter and the interaction between Ichigo and Orihime you've been waiting for. Brief, but valuable.

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter IV_

_Ughhhh_, Ichigo mentally grunted in his head. _I really hate this. _As he walked back home from school, his thoughts were only of his beautiful Orihime. Because she had not gone to school, it made him feel completely on edge and worried. He wondered whether or not she had skipped school because she was sick or because she was avoiding him. Orihime always had a very difficult time dealing with dramatic situations and often could not face someone after having troubles with him or her. This happened whenever she thought someone was mad at her. He knew her too well already which was why he only assumed the worst. The fact that she was possibly avoiding him really killed him inside, but he had to remind himself that she should be avoiding him especially after what she did.

Shaking his head as if to shake away those depressing thoughts, he decided to think more about other things like… like… _Man, other than Orihime, my life has been boring. That's kind of sad, _he chuckled to himself. Coming to this realization actually made him to want to be more determined to make his life interesting and actually start owning up to important matters such as college. Everything he was going through with Orihime could not prevent him from moving on with his life. He was stronger than that.

Unfortunately, Ichigo was still quite not sure what he exactly wanted to do with his future. He had no clue what his career would be, but he knew he needed to put a lot more thought into it because… after all it would be what he would be doing almost every single day for the rest of his life. He furrowed his brows and huffed out a long breath. All this serious thinking was working his brain out too much for his liking.

He really loved literature such as the famous pieces by William Shakespeare. Becoming a Literature teacher and just studying novels with students would be an amazing job for him. He smiled to himself, just liking the thought of it. That was something he could see himself doing every day. He had also considered taking on after his father who was a small town clinic. Medicine really didn't bore him all too much. It was something he thought he could handle and it paid a decent amount of money. It would definitely give him a more solid amount of money than being a Literature teacher would. That is exactly where the problem lay and he knew that now was really the wrong time to be thinking about it considering the fact that college was only three months away and all his classes were already chosen. For now, he would just be attending the community college and would choose his major next year.

The fact that he would be attending college so soon though really struck a chord within him. He knew these were the years in his life which determined so much down the line. The major he would be studying affected everything for twenty years to come and on. The stress and pressure was almost something Ichigo could not comprehend at the moment. _Ahhh, so much to think about. I just wish I knew exactly what I wanted to do or at least what's best for me to do…_

He lost his train of thought when he saw two girls crossing the street a good distance ahead of him. Being completely bored with his walk home, he pretended like they were the size of ants and put his hand in front of his face, pretending to pick them up with his fingers. Ichigo sighed. _What am I? Five? _He put his hand back down by his side. Upon further inspection, he realized he knew the two girls as he got closer to them. Ichigo's eyes bugged out of their sockets. All he saw was a flash of auburn and a dot of black.

Upon further inspection, his suspicions became true. He could now clearly see the two girls were Orihime and Tatsuki. As he observed them, he noticed that Orihime seemed a lot better and the two girls were smiling as they made their way toward Orihime's apartment. _Heh, she seems to be doing perfectly fine without me. _Ichigo really wanted to avoid any confrontation with the two, so he kept his head down and walked very slowly hoping they would not notice him. _Thank God they aren't walking _toward_ me._

The girls had stopped laughing abruptly which caused him to look up. Unfortunately, Tatsuki had noticed him. "Yo Ichigo!" she yelled, waving at him.

_Obviously Tatsuki has no idea what happened with me and Orihime because she would not be calling me right now if she did! _Ichigo only knew this because Tatsuki would find some way to blame Ichigo for something he did not do or just for the simple fact that she was even calling him over. She did not know how awkward of a situation she was about to create.

_How do I get myself out of this one? _Realizing he couldn't, Ichigo decided to face the circumstances. He would say hello to both of them and then just continue walking home. Ichigo also didn't really want anyone to know about what happened, so he would act as normal as he possibly could.

Close enough to them now that he could see their faces, he greeted both of them. "Hey Tatsuki… Hime…"

Orihime was slightly hesitant before she greeted him, looking down at the ground. After watching her go through a few seconds of mental deliberation and decision making, she decided to smile her usual smile at him. "Hello Ichigo!"

Ichigo gave her a very sad smile, expecting no less from her. Of course, she would make it seem as though nothing was wrong and also make it seem effortless at the same time.

The large smile plastered on her face faltered a bit at seeing his heartbreaking eyes, but she continued to keep up the façade for the sake of Tatsuki not finding out what occurred between them. Fortunately enough, Tatsuki did not notice anything out of place because she was already making her way up the stairs to Orihime's apartment door.

"Ichigo! Why don't you come in and hang with us for a little while. We're bored. And school ended a while ago. Why are you walking home just now anyway?," Tatsuki yelled from the top of the stairs.

"Uh… I had to stay after to school to clean the classroom and um… I don't know… I have to get back home…"

Orihime placed a hand on his arm. "It's okay. Don't worry about it. I'll handle this when we get inside. Just go home," she whispered sadly, knowing that home was where he'd rather be than here… with her. She looked into his eyes for just a second, but quickly glanced down at the ground not able to bring herself to look at him much longer. Her flingers clenched his arm a bit tighter before she let go and turned away from him to walk up the stairs. Tatsuki had walked into Orihime's adobe right after Ichigo awkwardly rejected her invitation.

Ichigo watched her as she went up the stairs and closed the door behind her. He sighed and continued his walk home. All he felt was his arm burning where her hand had been just a few moments before. _I can't believe this is what things have come to..._

* * *

><p>Orihime softly closed the door behind, clicking it shut.<p>

"What the heck is up with Ichigo? Usually he wouldn't even hesitate to come hang out with you."

"Oh, he said that he had to study and that his dad would kill him if he didn't get home soon," she laughed, scratching the back of her head.

"Hm… I guess I can believe that. His dad is kind of crazy. But I don't know. He was acting so weird in school today."

"How?" Orihime asked quietly.

"He was very emotional in an angry and frustrated way. He, like, stormed off to the bathroom after I said I was worried about you being sick and whatnot. I don't know. Whatever, he's always moody anyway, that idiot."

At the hearing of this new knowledge, Orihime couldn't help but feel even more saddened. She knew he was obviously upset just by the sight of him outside before, but now reality was really sinking in. Now she was realizing how much she had hurt him and it stung her. _I didn't want to hurt him, but… but… I can't back down now…_

"Um… Tatsuki. We should study now, shouldn't we?" she asked, hoping her friend would agree because she really wanted to change the subject.

"Oh. Yeah, sure. Wow, I completely forgot that that's what I pretty much came here for in the first place," she snickered.

After about three hours of continual studying for the final exams, the two girls were completely mentally exhausted.

"Hime, I can't do this anymore. I need to go home. It's already passed seven o'clock. My mom's probably going to call me any minute now for dinner time," she exclaimed falling down onto the carpet and huffing out a long worn out breath. "So I'm going now."

"All right Tatsuki! I'm tired too. This baby is tiring me out along with all the studying. I'm twice as tired as you are," she smiled, lightly patting her stomach.

"Then I'm glad I'm not the one who's pregnant. Oh, that actually reminds me… have you told Ichigo yet?"

This question caught Orihime off guard. For some idiotic reason, she wasn't expecting her best friend to ask her that question any time soon, but she really should have expected it. It was only common sense.

"Um, no, I haven't! But don't worry about that just yet," she said, gathering all of Tatsuki's belongings, trying to expedite her best friend's departure.

"What do you mean 'don't worry about that just yet'? You better tell him soon."

"I know. I know. I'm just not ready to. That's all. Don't worry. The time will come."

"When? From the way you sound right now… you know, all panicky and whatnot… it sounds like you're gonna tell him ten months from now."

"Tatsuki, don't think of such a silly idea like that!"

"I don't think this is something you can just laugh off Orihime, but yeah, I guess. If you're not ready, then you should at least prepare."

"Mhmm. Well, goodnight Tatsuki!"

"Okay, goodnight Hime. We're gonna talk about this another time though. Remember that!" Tatsuki yelled behind her as she flew down the stairs and ran onto the street.

Orihime sighed, glad to be in the comfort of her small apartment entirely alone. She could finally think to herself or better yet, think out loud without having to keep any secrets. Silently, her tears built up and fell from her big grey eyes and down her rosy cheeks. Keeping all these secrets and having to lie like she had been, was already becoming too much and the lie had only just started.

She didn't realize how much she was hurting Ichigo until she had looked into his miserable brown eyes earlier today. She hadn't really thought about what the consequences of her actions would be. She knew it would hurt him, but not this much. _Maybe I'm making a mistake by keeping this from him… I didn't think I'd hurt him this much… I just don't know what to do…_

Even if she could not come up with a decision right then and there, she definitely knew she still wanted to make Ichigo's life somewhat easier by treating him normally, but she didn't know how else to do that without telling him the truth. _Maybe I can keep up the lie for a little while and then tell him. Hehe, maybe Tatsuki's 'silly idea' is what's really going to happen anyway._

* * *

><p>The following week came quickly, meaning exams were finally commencing. Orihime continued yawning and yawning all throughout her first class. She had to keep wiping her eyes because they kept tearing. <em>Baby! You keep making me so tired. Please stop… just for a little until this exam is over,<em> she thought, looking down at her stomach.

She really tried to concentrate on the test before her. For the most part, she was successful, but just when she thought her bouts of nausea were gone forever, she abruptly ran out of the classroom to the bathroom with only ten minutes of testing left.

It was extremely hard for Ichigo to concentrate on the exam while being very conscious of Orihime's presence in the room. When she had unexpectedly stood up and rushed out of the room, covering her mouth, he immediately knew she had to throw up and unfortunately, she was gone for the last ten minutes of the test. _I hope she was able to finish it._

When the bell finally rang, everyone handed in their completed exams and excitedly grabbed their lunches, happy that it was lunchtime and also just tremendously relieved that they were already halfway through their finals.

While everyone headed outside to enjoy their meals in the sunny weather, Ichigo found himself still in the classroom, waiting for Orihime. She still had not come back.

Just then a very disheveled Orihime walked right inside the classroom and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw her ex-boyfriend. Upon further inspection, she appeared to be a mess. The bags under her eyes were grey and her face decently pale. Ichigo's compassion for her overrode any other negative feelings he harbored for her during that moment.

"Oh… Ichigo! I wasn't expecting you to be here… alone. Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You don't have to pretend to be happy or act as if everything's normal when we're alone. I already know the truth, so it doesn't matter… were you just throwing up again?"

At the mention of his words, she looked down at the floor. She knew he was right and she felt ashamed for even acting remotely normal in front of him when they were alone. "Uh… yeah, but don't worry about it! It's nothing."

"I don't know. You've been sick like this for weeks. It's hard not to worry."

Orihime was surprised. She had only expected that he would resent her or at least act as though he didn't care, but here he was being ever so kind to her even after what she "did" to him. The guilt she had been feeling grew even more in that moment, so much she could not even look at him.

"So… I just want to make a deal."

"Eh? A deal?" she asked, confused.

"No one else knows about what happened, right?"

"No, but…"

"I know. I know. Tatsuki's gonna know any day now. Well, forgetting that, let's just not avoid each other around Rukia and all them. I'm not going to act like your boyfriend, but for their sake and for the sake of rumors not spreading, let's just act like happy normal friends. I'm not willing to make my school life a living hell because of you."

As soon as he said those words, he really regretted it. What he said came out harsh and he was scared to look at her afterward. He knew when he would look up, she would look really fragile and hurt and of course, he was right, but he decided to push through it and mend things just a bit by putting on a normal tone of voice, as though he hadn't said anything harmful. "So, um, is that a deal?"

"Yeah…," she almost whispered, not able to meet his eyes. So instead she walked over to her desk to realize her test wasn't there anymore. It had been collected by someone already and she hadn't even been able to finish it. She slowly sat in her seat, using the desk as support. She was so disappointed in herself. The last few questions she missed could have been more than fifteen points taken away from her final score. After working so hard studying for these tests, here she was staring at her empty desk blankly in shock.

Ichigo just stared at her pitifully, knowing how hard she worked to get this point. She hadn't worked so hard to throw up during the last ten minutes of the exam and probably lose many points. Ichigo sighed. Not able to hold himself back, he placed a hand on her shoulder, doing anything to comfort her at this point. He hated seeing her like this.

She stiffened at his touch. She didn't expect that he would even try to console her in the slightest. But when he gave her shoulder a slight squeeze, she relaxed under his touch. She placed her hand on his and started to cry silently. Not only was she crying because of the test, but also because she did not deserve this treatment from Ichigo. She only assumed there was a battlefield of emotions going on in his mind and heart. He probably didn't want to be there with her. He probably just wanted to avoid her like any other normal person in his position would, but there he was calming her when she least deserved it. That was when she knew she could not keep lying to him. He deserved to know the truth.

"Ichigo, why are you treating me like this? I just don't understand," she whispered through sniffles.

"Hime, I really don't understand myself either."

"Listen, you need to know the tru-"

"Ichigo and Orihime! What are you guys doing?" Rukia exclaimed, barging into the classroom. "Oh… did I interrupt something?"

Ichigo and Orihime just stared at their petite vicious friend with large eyes. Her entrance both caught them off guard, especially Orihime.

"No, don't worry about it Tatsuki," Ichigo said.

"Oh, okay. We've been waiting for you guys to eat lunch with us. Let's go!"

They both got their lunches and followed Rukia outside. They mentally agreed to act as normal or happy as they usually would any other day and so they did.

* * *

><p>"How have you been feeling Inoue?" Sado asked.<p>

"Eh? Oh, I've been feeling pretty good. I've been a lot better lately. I haven't been throwing up as much and I can eat more foods now which makes me really happy because I've really been missing my pickles and sugar and all the other stuff I always used to make."

Her friends just stared at her with looks of true distaste. At least no one would suspect she was pregnant since her eating habits were always peculiar regardless of their being a human inside her.

"But didn't you leave the room earlier today during the test? I assume you vomited again," Ishida stated.

"Yes…" she said solemnly, remembering the unfortunate fact that she did not get to finish her test.

"Inoue, you have some strange symptoms. You said you haven't had a fever at all during your sickness, correct?"

"Yes," she gulped. Ishida was an extremely knowledgeable person in general and it scared her that he seemed to be investigating her condition. If anyone found out first without her telling, it would be Ishida Uryu. _He would definitely use his super brainpower to figure out that I'm pregnant!_ She looked at each of her friends' faces frantically. They were each looking at Ishida somewhat expectantly as though waiting for his explanation.

"Have you gone to the doctors?"

"Mhmm." Now her heart was pounding spastically within her chest. Would she have to tell them truth like this? Right here? Right now?

"What did they say?"

"Shut up Ishida. It's none of your business. The doctor said it wasn't anything big. Just an allergic reaction to some food she was eating," Tatsuki lied, saving Orihime.

Orihime breathed a sigh of relief. _Thank you, Tatsuki._

It seemed like all her friends breathed a sigh of relief along with her, although for a different reason. They all feared something was terribly wrong with their bubbly friend.

"Well, that's good Orihime! At least it's nothing too bad. What are you allergic to?" Rukia innocently asked.

"Um… uh… leeks!"

Tatsuki just gawked at her best friend giving her a look that read '_You couldn't come up with anything better?'_

"Hm… that's strange. Well, now you know what to stay away from!"

"Yes… that is an odd allergy you have there, Inoue. Well, at least now you know," Ishida said warily. Ishida knew it was all lie just based on Orihime's flustered movements, her loss for words, and her lack of creativity at making up a good allergy. How could she all of a sudden have an allergic reaction to leeks if they weren't anywhere near her all the times she had had to leave the room to vomit? He decided to play along though.

Ichigo also knew something was up. Since when was Orihime ever allergic to leeks? It definitely is possible to develop a new allergy, but just from knowing Orihime so well, he could tell she was trying to hide something. _Whatever, I'm not getting involved in this right now. I can't deal._

* * *

><p>Ishida went to his locker to grab his street shoes. Only the Art Club members stayed after school, so the building was very vacant. He slipped his shoes on absentmindedly. All he continued to think about was their conversation at lunch. It all just seemed so fishy.<p>

He tried to fit all the puzzle pieces together, recalling all the symptoms she relayed to them and all her odd sickly behaviors. One by one, he remembered them and all the haziness of this mystery started to become clearer. _Is Inoue pregnant? _he thought to himself. After thinking it through several times, it seemed to be the only explanation which made the most sense. He was shocked beyond belief at this revelation of his and very soon after he felt like vomiting. He shook all mental images from his head. _Ugh, disgusting._

As if to confirm the conclusion he had drawn, he peeked through the shoe lockers to see Orihime a small distance away at her own locker. She obviously did not know he was there. She was rubbing her stomach in a soothing manner and gazing it. _Is she talking to it? _She was actually having a very animated conversation with her baby, but all the animation seemed to escape from her, her shoulders sagging and head dropping all of a sudden. All Ishida heard was… "Baby, I'm sorry I'm keeping you from everyone."

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><p>All right. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I enjoyed writing the scenes with Ichigo and Orhime interacting once again. I wonder what Ishida's going to do with this valuable information. *evil laugh* Oh, and I'm actually thinking about continuing one of my old stories <em>Melody of the Distilled Rose<em>, so you guys should check it out.

~Yono~


	5. Chapter V

Hey guys. Thanks again for all the reviews and alerts! This chapter is a little bit on the short side. Sorry about that.

I was about to post it raw without editing because I was feeling really lazy, but then I decided I would edit it and I'm glad I did because for instance, instead of putting the word 'purpose,' I put 'purple.' Hm...

I'm updating quite quickly now, but it's pretty possible that that might change next week. Going back to school and all!

All right, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter. Things are **starting** to build towards what you want.

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter V_

The week continued to drag on. Final exams were finally coming to a close with only one exam left which also meant the end of their last year of high school. The closing ceremony would be tomorrow and all the seniors were excited to finally get out of Karakura High School and move onto bigger and better colleges and universities.

The clock just carried on with its ticking at too slow a pace. All the students were scribbling their final answers and anxiously looking at the clock every few seconds to see what number the minute hand would land on next. Everyone was so restless to get out, they were furiously scribbling in their answers. The teacher could hear their pencils busy at work. It was as though the pencils were singing together in a chaotic chorus. _Pftt… kids… _Ochi-sensei muttered to herself, rolling her eyes.

_I am victorious this time! You can't beat me!_ Orihime cheered inside her head, triumphantly finishing the test and with one minute left to spare. She was obviously very proud of herself.

And finally that one last minute was over. All the students quickly stood up and ran to Ochi-sensei's desk to give her their papers. "Oi oi! Stop shoving these papers in my face or I'll fail every single one of you!" she roared angrily.

All the hustle and bustle calmed down at mention of her threat. They all knew she would actually follow through with it if they did not stop. Unfortunately, Ochi-sensei meant what she said most of the time.

Orihime breathed out a huge sigh of relief. Testing was finally over and the last day of school would be tomorrow. All her friends and classmates were relieved along with her and were celebrating with laughter and cheerful conversations as they left the classroom. Although the atmosphere emanating from the people around was tired and worn out, the happiness definitely overwhelmed all negative connotations. Just that alone really made Orihime happy as well. She looked at all the people around her and smiled. Everything was going great… until she remembered all her most recent problems: ones she had yet to fix. Her merry mood quickly turned gloomy, her eyes downcast toward the floor. A small pain started developing in her chest, growing rapidly. Lately, all gladness and glee was short term, never lasting for a long time before she remembered anything and everything that had to do with Ichigo and this baby. She put her hand on her chest, hoping that would help ease the throbbing. Now her problems were starting to take a physical toll on her and that was not healthy for her or the baby, especially the baby. She knew she needed to resolve all these issues quickly.

"Hime," a voice came from behind her.

She turned around at the familiar voice. "Hello Tatsuki," she smiled.

"I'm going over your house tonight, so don't make anything intoxicating and just order takeout or something, okay?"

"Wahhh, why won't you just let me make something for you?" she pouted.

Her best friend just stared at her blankly as if she just asked a stupid question. "Heh heh, Hime I think we've been through this one too many times before," she said, patting her on the back in a soothing manner.

"Okay, okay, fine," she surrendered sadly. "Why are you in such a rush?"

"I've got karate in, like, ten minutes!" Tatsuki yelled behind her, already having taken off running down the hallway pushing through the crowd of milling students.

Orihime finally got to her shoe locker and slipped on her shoes. It seemed as though all her friends had already started walking home. Now that she didn't have Ichigo to walk home with, she felt extremely lonely. This dampened her mood even more. She almost saw the grey cloud swirling above her. She pretended to swat it away with her hand. _I have to try to be happy! _she encouraged herself.

She marched outside the front entrance of the building, determined to lighten up her gloom. As she was walking, she saw her spectacled friend Ishida, from a distance, standing by the gates. She immediately started to become nervous. _He really might not know anything, but still. Whenever I'm around him now, I always get really anxious. _Unfortunately, she had to walk right through the gates in order to get home and now she was beginning to think he was standing there with a purpose, waiting for someone… for her.

Her heart started to pound within her violently. She attempted to reassure herself with many pitiful scenarios as to why he was possibly standing there. _Maybe there's a girl he likes a-and he's waiting for her! Or maybe he's waiting for Sado-kun to walk home with! Hm… no, he usually walks home alone. Maybe he does have to talk to me… b-but it's something about the Art Club and the decorations for tomorrow's closing ceremony! Yeah, yeah, that has to be it! _By the time she ran out of excuses to tell herself, she was already a few feet away from Ishida. She hadn't even realized how carried away with herself she had gotten.

"Inoue-san," Ishida greeted, the glare in his glasses made the moment much more intense for her.

"H-hello Ishida-kun! W-why aren't you walking home yet?" she gulped, trying with all her might to hide her uneasiness.

Ishida was not stupid. Orihime was sometimes very easy to read, especially when she was nervous, but he was gracious enough to stall for a little while.

"The banner you and Ume created is very nice. I'm sure the principal is going to love it."

_Ah, I was right! He only wanted to talk about the decorations for tomorrow! _She huffed out a long breath, reassured now. "Yes, thank you! At first I drew a robot that had my type of hair on it, but then Ume erased it. I don't know why…"

Ishida just gawked at the girl in front of him. Sometimes he questioned how much of her head was really on earth.

He saw how she had started becoming animated in her movements and was not as rigid and restless as when she was walking toward him. He immediately felt bad for avoiding his true purpose of speaking with her because now she was in a somewhat good mood and he would have to ruin that.

"Um… Inoue-san."

"Yeah?"

"You know that I am really never one to intrude on personal matters, correct?"

"Yes…"

"Well, this might just be the only special case."

"…"

"Please just answer me truthfully. I will not tell a soul. I just need to hear the answer from you to make sure I'm not hallucinating."

Orihime nodded her head, never taking her wide eyes off of his.

Ishida looked down at the ground, awfully embarrassed to be asking this question. "Are you, um… pregnant?"

She just stared at him for a few very long moments. So long, Ishida had to peer through his glasses and look up at her to make sure she was still there. He then just waited very patiently. "You don't have to tell-"

"I am," she stated, looking away from him.

Ishida was astounded at the short bluntness of her statement. He had not expected her to answer so directly.

"I assure you that I'm not asking you this so I can go off and tell Ichigo."

She looked straight at him in distress. "You promise?"

"Yes… but why haven't you told him yet?"

Orihime feigned a small laugh. "I'm just not ready yet. That's all. I'm going to tell him… soon."

Ishida could see through her smile. For someone who was constantly displaying genuine smiles, she couldn't fake one for her life.

"Listen… Inoue. I'm not talking to you about this because I'm curious. I'd much rather not be speaking about this actually… The only reason I'm having this conversation with you in the first place, is because I'm really worried about all of this. It's obvious that Ichigo doesn't know because if he did, he wouldn't be acting the way he has been. Lately he's been so stressed out and I know that something happened between you two. You don't have to tell me what happened, but I'm only here to tell you this: you need to make up with him soon and tell him the truth. Even I'm concerned about him."

Orihime was subconsciously holding her breath. She nodded her head a million times, breathing out the air she was holding in. She couldn't really speak, so those two actions spoke for her. The fact that Ishida would go out of his way to speak to her about this really made her recognize even more how serious things were becoming. Like Ishida had said… he wasn't one to intrude on personal matters. That fact alone just maximized the importance of their discussion. Ishida would never tell someone something like this.

After about a minute of silence, Orihime said, "Thank you, Ishida-kun. I really do appreciate your concern. I have to go now though."

Ishida just nodded, signifying his 'you're welcome,' but he did notice that she smiled. Although her smile was a sad one, it was still determined and genuine. With that, he walked in the opposite direction from her with a small smile gracing his own features. He knew he definitely impacted her decision.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, Orihime had to have the same conversation twice that day, except this time she had to go a lot further into detail.<p>

"You did what?"

Orihime started leaning further away from Tatsuki every time she yelled at her. "I-I let him go home after."

"What the heck is wrong with you? Why didn't you… why didn't you run after him or something?"

"I was kind of scared and also hurt that he was doubting me all that time…" she leaned about another foot away from Tatsuki, ready for an additional explosion.

"It's only normal that he was! Everyone gets scared sometimes when it comes to those things. How would you feel if you knew he was definitely hiding something from you?"

Orihime actually thought about it for some time and surprisingly, Tatsuki waited for her to truly think about the question she had just posed.

"I guess I'd feel… betrayed a little… sad… even kind of helpless because I wouldn't be able to force him to tell me anything…"

"Exactly. Listen. Don't go lying to yourself, thinking that you're going to relieve him of having a girlfriend he doubts and how that's not a healthy relationship and blah blah blah. I'm pretty sure you were saying those things to yourself. I know you're only to trying to help him, but honestly, your view of help is very twisted! You're not helping him. You're just hurting him." Tatsuki almost gagged at how cliché that sounded, but she couldn't help but admit that it was true in this case.

"I know, Tatsuki. Even Ishida was telling me I had to tell Ichigo soon."

"Ishida? Woah… that's weird…" she admitted. "Ha, even he knows this is serious. Well, that just supports my point even more!"

Having this conversation twice in one day, and the second time being even worse, was really too much for Orihime. She knew what she had to do and the stress of even imagining speaking to Ichigo about something so critical after the big fat lie he currently believed, was scaring her even more.

"So… when do you think you're going to tell him?" Tatsuki asked, finally calmed down and a little more considerate of her friend's anxiety.

"I don't know. I… just don't know!" she almost yelled, tears starting to build in her eyes, making everything before her blurry.

At the sight of her best friend crying, Tatsuki could not resist but to hug Orihime even after all the tough love she just gave her.

"I'm just so scared…" Orihime sobbed into Tatsuki's chest.

"I doubt Ichigo wouldn't support you and the baby. And I also doubt that he's not going to be happy about it either. I think after the initial shock of it all, he's going to be extremely happy in fact. He loves you so much, Orihime and I know he'll love that baby just as much as you… maybe even more," she laughed.

Orihime laughed with her, wiping her tears on her sleeve. "I know. You're right. But I'm also just scared of how he's going to react or even treat me after he finds out it was all a lie and that I really never even cheated on him. He is going to be so mad at me for letting him believe it."

Tatsuki sighed. "Well, that's your fault. Lying is seriously the worst thing someone can do. One lie turns into a million and it's just really never the right way to deal with a problem. You're just going to have to mend your relationship together one step at a time and besides, he's the idiot for losing his temper so quickly and not even letting you finish your darn sentence!"

"Heh heh, yeah, he does do that a lot."

"Have you told Rukia yet?"

"Eh?... Oh, no, not yet. I haven't had a chance to talk to her lately and besides, I want Ichigo to know first. You and Ishida already know. I think that's enough for now."

"Hm… yeah. So where's that takeout you ordered?"

"Over there… on the kitchen counter!"

"I'll go get it then because karate practice made me so darn hungry."

As Orihime waited for Tatsuki to bring dinner over to the living room, she pondered on the conversations she had with her best friend and with Ishida today. She felt a surge of hope. She knew she could make things better the sooner she spoke to Ichigo. Specifically the conversation she just had with Tatsuki comforted her. She felt much more determined to see things through.

* * *

><p>The following day was the last day of school, much to everyone's excitement and also the closing ceremony. Every hallway was filled with lines of students waiting to file into the auditorium. Everyone was starting to become restless… including Ichigo.<p>

Ichigo was not cut out for situations like these: waiting in the longest line of time and being crammed close to classmates. He felt like he was in a can of sardines. All the teachers and staff were taking their sweet old time preparing the auditorium with decorations and last minute sound requirements. _Why didn't they do this yesterday or something?... Seriously…_

Ichigo leaned his head back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. He would just shut out the noise of the chit chat everywhere around him, close his eyes, see nothing but black, and just concentrate on that.

Thankfully, his good friend, Sado was standing right beside him. Sado was a man of a few words, so basically, him and Ichigo got along very well. But unfortunately, Keigo was also right beside him. Keigo was a very immature, whiny and obnoxious teenager whom Ichigo had to deal with all throughout high school.

"Soooo... what are your summer plans Ichigoooooooo?" Keigo asked loudly, going on his tiptoes to get closer to Ichigo's face.

Ichigo just grunted in response.

"Huh? I can't hear you. Everyone's so loud in here!" he yelled, not really helping the matter he just stated.

Ichigo peeked one eye open to look down at Keigo and closed it again, trying to fall back into his so called "sleep."

"Aww, come on Ichigooo! Why are you being so boring today? No, why are you boring every day?"

Ichigo didn't even respond this time.

"Jeez, I just wanted to know what you were doing during the summer. Well, I already know what you're doing anyway. You have a girlfriend and you'll probably go out with her tons of places and have fun while I'm here… completely single. I have no life! I'm so deprived!" Keigo exclaimed, waterfalls of tears pouring from his eyes.

This time, Ichigo punched him. Now, this was usually an action Ichigo did to Keigo whenever he was bugging him, so it wasn't out of the norm. It was never anything serious, but even Keigo sensed that there was something completely serious behind this punch.

"S-sorry, Ichigo. I don't know what I said…" he admitted, rubbing the side of his jaw.

"Tsk. You don't have to know. Just leave me alone." Sado placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, making sure he stayed put and calm enough to make it through the last hour of the school year without making a scene. That was the first time Sado noticed something was wrong… and it had to do with Orihime.

Keigo remained silent for a few minutes, but eventually started bouncing from one group of talking people to the next, being his usual animated self.

Finally, the long lines of students were being ushered into the auditorium. Teachers were announcing which classes won certain awards for the school festival they had just held a few weeks ago. The top two smartest students in the school delivered long boring speeches. Although, the closing ceremony was making time drag on, making the students want to leave even sooner, everyone was still excited to be in each other's company at school for these last few moments. Finally, the seniors officially graduated Karakura High School and summer had finally begun.

Ichigo stepped outside into the bright sun trying to cope with the fact that he wouldn't be spending his summer with Orihime this time around.

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><p>Thank you for reading yet again! I hope you enjoyed it. Please think about leaving a review. Your reviews let me know what you think and what you like and dislike. Thank you to the reviewers who actually left me messages. They really helped!<p>

Also, all opinions of this story are completely respected, but honestly, if you don't like this story one bit, then stop reading it. In shoujo animes, ridiculous misunderstanding such as the ones in this story are extremely common and make the story. I could post the original _Sacrificial Treasure_, but it would only be, like, one chapter.

Okay, thank you guys once again! (:

~Yono~


	6. Chapter VI

Hey guys. Thanks for the reviews and alerts again! I appreciate every single one of them. (:

I really enjoyed writing this chapter a lot and I think you guys are going to enjoy it too. Lots of important things happen.

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter VI_

Almost a month and a half of summer had already passed. Orihime was now four and a half months pregnant, baby bump starting to show much more in all its glory, working, and very comfortable in the chair she was sitting in. Oh and not to mention…still single. She laid her face against her hand, her elbow propped up on the counter, staring at all the tables and chairs she still needed to place and prepare before the bakery's opening time drew near. Although she had felt a lot of determination and strength to tell Ichigo the truth back in the beginning of the summer, that willpower quickly faded the less and less she saw him and the more time she spent in her apartment with Tatsuki and Rukia. She barely ever left her apartment, scared people she knew would see her swollen belly. Now that Rukia knew as well, Orihime felt ten times guiltier than she had before. Ichigo still did not know and she knew she had to tell him. _But why can't I? I'm just so weak! What has happened to me?_ she thought to herself.

Rukia and Tatsuki had constantly bothered and encouraged her to tell him already. They continued doing this multiple times until they realized they were getting nowhere with her. Orihime had actually run into Ishida at the supermarket a week ago. They had casually spoken about how everything was going. The subject of Ichigo and the baby lingered in the air the whole time throughout their small talk, but was never actually mouthed. Before they had parted ways though, Ishida gave her a very knowing look, making sure that was the goodbye she received and it definitely had stuck in her head. She very clearly remembered the look in his eyes, telling her to basically get over herself and talk to Ichigo.

"What are you just standing around for daydreaming? Get to work!" her boss yelled. Kurumizawa Jou was a very nasty man who took work at his bakery almost too seriously. All the employees disliked him greatly. They always wondered how his wife even dealt with living with him. Her name was Kurumizawa Ayane and probably the sweetest women Orihime had ever met. This was one of those cases when one could really believe that opposites do attract.

Orihime immediately stood straight up. "Hai!" She right away felt very lightheaded from getting up so quickly. According to her doctor, she now had a lot more blood which supported her and the baby, so she was lightheaded during moments like these.

Orihime began taking the chairs off the tables and placing them all on the ground. She repositioned all the napkin holders, coasters, and utensils. She did this repeatedly for what felt like an hour.

"Shouldn't you have one of the guys taking all the chairs down?" Ayane suggested to her husband.

"Why? She's perfectly capable of doing that on her own," he stated, wiping the display counter clean.

"Well, look at her. She looks exhausted even though by now, this far into her pregnancy, she should already be feeling great."

He didn't bother looking at her. "I don't really care, honey."

She just glared at him and huffed out a very audible breath, just so he could hear it.

After finishing that task, Orihime went behind the counter again waiting to hear whatever she had to next. "Do you need me to do anything else, Kurumizawa-sama?"

"Yeah, either get rid of that stomach of yours or you're fired. Throw on an apron quick. I can see our first costumer walking across the street and I don't want them to see that you're pregnant."

His words almost horrified her. '… Get rid of that stomach of yours or you're fired…' She just continued staring at him, a very deep scowl on her face and eyes very wide. She quickly found an apron and practically threw it on herself, fumbling to tie the knot behind herself.

Ayane stopped her, kindly tying it for her. "Don't worry. We'll talk later," she whispered into Orihime's ear.

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><p>That day at work was a pretty horrible one. She had always enjoyed her job because she loved pastries and just the feeling of being in a bakery with tons of people chatting and her being able to deliver smiles to their faces whenever she served them their orders, but now her days serving the costumers or working at the counter were dwindling as her baby grew.<p>

Around six o'clock, when her shift had ended, Ayane brought Orihime to the back of the bakery where the office was located. Orihime sat down in a chair across from Ayane's desk.

"Why is boss being this way, Ayane-san?"

Ayane sighed, very saddened and displeased. "Because you're pregnant and he doesn't want costumers to see that he has a young teenage girl in your condition working in his bakery. I don't support this at all honey, but he is the boss and I've done everything I can to convince him to let you stay here."

"B-but can't I work in the kitchen or something? None of the costumers will see me there…" she pleaded.

"You know that we already have enough people working back there. If we add you and your growing belly to the mix, the kitchen's going to be even more packed than it already is..." She paused. "I **really** have done all I can sweetie."

Orihime covered her face with her hands, not even able to believe she had just lost her job. "How am I going to make money now? I'm obviously going to need money!" she stated, pointing to her belly.

Ayane just stared at her with sympathetic eyes. "Well, he is letting you stay here for another two weeks because by then there will be no hiding it."

Orihime just nodded, trying her best to hold back the tears. This was the first time she had felt angry in a very long time. She was both upset and frustrated. How could she come to such a low point as this?

"I'm so sorry."

"No, it's not your fault. Thank you though." With that, Orihime left to walk home in the evening sunset.

* * *

><p>Ichigo sat at his desk idly, tapping his fingers to a catchy rhythm. He didn't really have much to do that day because he was off of work at the moment. <em>Tsk… finally I have a day off and I have nothing to do. How pathetic. <em>While he kept rambling off in his head, he sifted through all the new mangas he had bought, trying to pick the one he was currently in the mood for.

His busy activity was interrupted when his phone started ringing. _If Yuzu asks me to go to the grocery store one more time, I think I'll-_

It wasn't Yuzu. It was Tatsuki.

"Tatsuki? What could possibly be up that she needs to call me?" he asked himself, really confused. He picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Yo, Ichigo."

"Hey, Tatsuki. What's up?"

"Nothing much. Don't really have anything to do today and I was thinking about something…"

"Uh… what were you thinking about?" Ichigo asked, not exactly sure how he was supposed to respond to her statement.

There was a pause. "You."

"Um… how am I supposed to take that? Cuz I know it's not what it sounds like."

Tatsuki laughed a bit. "Yeah, I admit that sounded weird. Sorry. Well… what I mean by 'you' is something I wanted to tell you…" Her tone changed from playful to serious.

"Mhmm… and that is?... "

Tatsuki sighed in return.

"What?"

"Now I don't know if I should really say anything…" Tatsuki was having an internal battle within her mind now.

"Are you serious? So basically you have something pretty important to tell me, you tell me that, and now you're not sure if you're gonna tell me?"

Tatsuki groaned. "Man, I don't know…"

"Come on. Can you get to the point? I feel like this is an evil game you're playing with me!" It was one of those instances when someone told you that he or she had something to tell you and he or she took forever to say it. The suspense was starting to gnaw at Ichigo.

"I think I'll let you wait a few more minutes until I tell you."

"What the hell, Tatsuki? I'm going to hang up. Goodbye!"

"No no no no! Sorry, wait!" she chuckled. Teasing her childhood friend was such a heck of a ride.

After a few seconds of trying to calm himself down, Ichigo said, "I'm waiting."

He heard her sigh for the billionth time on the line. "Well… it's about Orihime." Now her tone switched from playful to completely serious.

Just at the mention of her name got Ichigo's pulse racing. He was already starting to get nervous. He had thought about her a lot, but always shoved her to the back of his mind, not really wanting to deal with all the emotions that came along with thinking about her. Having not seen her since the last day of school was a whole new experience to add to the list as well.

He gulped. "What… what about her?" he almost whispered. He almost felt weak.

"Do you trust me, Ichigo?"

"Yeah… why?"

"Because I really need you to trust that what I'm going to tell you is true."

"Okay… Tatsuki please, just tell me already."

"Well, let's just say that… that the next time you guys actually, like, really _talk_… that you have to believe everything she tells you. No matter how much you might believe otherwise, you absolutely have to believe it, okay?"

"Tatsuki, what are you talking about?"

"Just trust me, okay?"

"Okay, but-"

She hung up.

What could she have possibly meant by that? Ichigo could make up no possible scenario or solution that would logically make sense in this case. Everything was too vague and broad and he doubted that he and Orihime would even talk soon. It didn't make sense.

"Ichigooooo!" his father yelled from downstairs.

"What?" Ichigo shouted back.

"Come down here! I need you to clean up the coat closet."

_Since when am I assigned to these little chores_, he grumbled to himself.

He went downstairs, finding his father waiting by the closet for him, smiling. "I have some guests coming over in about an hour and they cannot be hanging up their coats in a messy coat closet, so clean it." He shoved his son toward the door.

Ichigo just glared at him. "Can't you just have Yuzu or Karin do it?"

"Your sisters are over a friend's house right now. Besides, you have nothing to do today anyway. You might as well spend the last few hours of the evening making your old man happy," he nudged him.

"Tsk, fine whatever." His father happily walked away to the kitchen, humming to himself in sheer delight. Ichigo rolled his eyes. He really wasn't in the mood for his father's childish games after the conversation he had had with Tatsuki.

Ichigo picked up all the old coats that had fallen on the floor over time and hung them up. Then he started cleaning the shelf at the very top, above the coats. All this time he spent cleaning, he was entirely distracted, just replaying the phone call exchange with Tatsuki, trying to make sense of it. Upon cleaning off the shelf, he came across an average sized open cardboard box full at least five pounds of photographs. He grabbed the box and sat down on the floor, deciding to look through it, forgetting about the phone call entirely.

The photos were mainly of his childhood. There were pictures of when he was a baby, when he was around five, when Yuzu and Karin were newborns, and a picture of him holding them. There were a ton of pictures of his deceased mother, Masaki. Looking at those pictures was somewhat bittersweet, but he smiled looking at them anyway.

Then he came across a picture of his mother and father. His dad stood behind Masaki, his hands on her very pregnant belly. They were both staring at it quite affectionately. Ichigo almost wanted to say 'awww,' but he didn't. That definitely was him inside there though.

"Let me see that!" Isshin exclaimed, snatching the picture out of Ichigo's hand.

"Hey! I was looking at it! And you scared me. Don't do that, old man!"

"Ahhhh. This is when she was pregnant with you. Things were great before you came along," he teased.

"I'm not even going to respond to that."

"You just did… well, anyway, you're mother was so funny when she was pregnant with you. She was always so moody especially in the beginning. She was always determined to stay happy and strong even though she was constantly throwing up. She couldn't even take the smell of Donburi. That darn Donburi was the main thing that got her and other things too. Don't get me wrong. It was sad always seeing her sick though, but at the same time funny because she would try to recover right away as though she were Superwoman, but she was always so tired, so she was no fun then and it's all because of you!"

The only words that really got Ichigo's mind reeling were: throwing up, Donburi, and tired. When Orihime was sick at the end of the school year, she was constantly throwing up and he remembered the time when Rukia brought Donburi to lunch and Orihime was nauseated by the smell. _No, that can only be coincidence… _But she was always so tired, even before final exams.

"I feel awful for women, having to deal with those symptoms of pregnancy," Isshin sympathized.

"Y-yeah… that really stinks," Ichigo agreed, but his mind was somewhere else, a million thoughts running through his head, bouncing off the walls of his skull. He almost felt sick, his gut twisting.

"Ichigo? What's wrong?" his father asked, noticing the very distantly shocked look in his son's eyes.

"Um… I think I'm going to go for a walk."

"All right. Well, come back on time, so I can introduce you to my guests!" he yelled. Ichigo was already out the door and didn't bother responding or looking behind him.

_What if she's pregnant and I didn't even notice? Why am I not observant enough? Am I just completely oblivious? Is she pregnant with that dude's baby? Goodness, I'm such an idiot! Why didn't I realize sooner… it al makes sense now. _Just the thought almost made Ichigo want to cry. He groaned, muffling the noise with his hand.

* * *

><p><em>I can't believe I just lost my job… I can't believe I just lost my job… <em>Orihime probably kept saying that to herself the whole walk home. _No other place is going to hire a fat-bellied pregnant teenager unless I work in an office, but there aren't even that many office buildings around here... unless I move to a city or something. And college starts in a little bit more than a month. I'm not going to have time to work... especially with all the classes I chose. _She continued sulking, her eyes downcast and hoodie over her head. She was scared she would pass by people she may have known. She really didn't want them to see her like this.

Unfortunately, her looking down at the ground and the hoodie even blocking her peripheral vision was not really the safest thing. The next thing she knew, she bumped into something pretty rock solid and almost fell back until a pair of strong arms caught her. "Oh, I'm so sorry, sir. Thank… you…" Her words got stuck in her throat when she saw who the stranger holding her was. "Ichigo…"

He let go of her and hesitantly created some distance between them. "A-are you okay?" he asked nervously. No matter how confused he was right now, his concern for her would probably never diminish.

"U-um… yes, thank you for catching me. You really have no idea how badly that could have ended." Maybe she shouldn't have said that.

"What do you mean?"

How was she supposed to tell this baby's father that if she had just fallen, she could have potentially hurt the baby or maybe even lost it?

"Oh, um! These are just some solid concrete sidewalks, ya know…"

_Liar. _"Yeah…" he agreed, deciding to play along. "Wait, were you crying?" he asked, noticing how pink and puffy her eyes looked.

"Oh, um… yeah. I just, um, lost my job," she said truthfully, the sadness evident in her eyes. At least that was something she could tell him and didn't have to hide.

"Why? What happened?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." That actually stung him a little. She used to tell him everything and now she hid everything possible from him. It was obvious that she was always on edge, trying to hide something. And he wondered if she was **literally** trying to hide something… like maybe what was underneath her baggy sweatshirt. _Okay… just looking isn't going to help…_

_I can't believe I'm still lying to him… and right to his face! I'm not ready to tell him right now, but… _with all the strength she could muster, she squeezed her eyes shut and made her hands into fists, shrugging her shoulders up to her chin. "Ichigo, can you please come over tomorrow? I need to tell you something important!" Those two sentences came out so quickly, Ichigo had to strain to hear them, but he understood perfectly fine. He noticed that just saying that took a lot of strength from her due to the fact that she looked like a deranged bird at the moment. He couldn't really bring himself to believe he was in this situation. He remembered Tatsuki's words. '… the next time you guys actually, like, really _talk_… that you have to believe everything she tells you. No matter how much you might believe otherwise, you absolutely have to believe it, okay?'

"Okay." He decided to keep his answer short and blunt, not wanting any of the emotions he was feeling show.

She finally opened her eyes again looking at him. They had still been screwed shut while waiting for his answer. She hadn't expected him to answer so forwardly. She relaxed from her oddly tensed position. She was really nervous. "Uh, um… okay. I'm going to be there all day tomorrow, so you can come whenever you'd like."

"Okay," he said, already starting to walk again. "Oh, and Orihime."

She just looked at him, letting him know she heard.

"Please be careful… for me."

* * *

><p>Okay, well, I hope you liked it. Please let me know what you think!<p>

Not sure if updates will be as quick as they have been, so expect that.

~Yono~


	7. Chapter VII

Hello fellow readers! I know it's been a week which is a very long time compared to my quicker updates. Unfortunately, the next chapter probably won't be up for a while because I have a show I am rehearsing for all week and then a whole bunch of work to do as well. I'll try my best just for you guys!

I'm going to respond to all my anonymous reviewers here since I can't respond to your reviews through e-mail. If you have an account, please log in because I like responding to my readers. (:

**Aya**: I'm not quite sure how long this fic is going to be. I'm just gonna go with the flow. It's whatever happens. It's not going to be short, but I can't say it's going to be really long either. I'm gonna say an average of _around_ 13 chapters. But yet again, I really don't know. And thank you very much. I enjoy reading your reviews! (:

**tenma **: Thank you so much! I hope you like this chapter!

**TooLazyToLogin**: Hahaha, your 'name' made me laugh. Really? I can't believe this made you cry! That's exciting for a writer to hear. Thanks a lot!

All right and now for the chapter you've all been waiting for... I really enjoyed writing it. I just hope you guys like it and that it's met at least a few of your expectations. I'm scared for reviews lol.

* * *

><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter VII_

Ichigo was in a rush. He hadn't woken up to his alarm and now he only had five minutes to get to work and he didn't drive unfortunately. He was too lazy to learn how to and now his laziness was seriously biting him in the butt.

He quickly buttoned up his ugly uniform shirt. It had a colorful logo on it which was huge and bright red. _I hate this shirt. I look like such a freaking idiot, _he muttered to himself. He worked at the downtown supermarket. He didn't mind it all that much just because most of his friends hung out in the downtown shopping area, so they would stop by and talk to him. But it was also somewhat embarrassing. A supermarket was honestly the last place Ichigo would want to be caught dead working in. It was also the last place he applied for or even wanted to work at, but sometimes you can't get what you want.

Today, his boss was being a pain in the butt. Her name was Ikumi Unagiya. She had an extremely strong personality and liked for things to be done her way. Most of the time he was lugging around heavy boxes and helping perform tasks weaker workers couldn't. That's what she loved so much about Ichigo. He was eighteen years old, had no responsibilities in life, and was strong. She used him for almost everything and it absolutely drove him up the wall. He almost dreaded going to work, always being pulled in a million different directions by tons of people who needed his help. Then there were those days when he would get lucky and all he had to do was be a cashier. It was only nice for a little while. He always grew restless standing in the same spot for hours. In the end, he pretty much had played the role of every different worker in that supermarket at least once.

He hated it, but at the same time, he was getting paid to do it, so there was no point in complaining. He made a lot of money for a teenager who didn't have much responsibility in his life. He was content with his job in general.

Ichigo ran down the stairs and almost flew out the door when his father stopped him. "Ichigo, son!"

"Yeah?" he responded impatiently.

His father looked at him with a very serious face on. His eyes were stern and darker than usual. It scared Ichigo a bit. What could be so wrong for his father to look so grave? Then his dad pointed at him. "The buttons on your shirt are all wrong."

Ichigo looked down at his shirt and then looked back at his father. His old man really knew how to play mean jokes on him. This was really annoying. He missed a button and now the whole shirt looked completely askew. "Why did you give me such a serious face? I thought something was wrong."

Isshin laughed. "I know. I'm just teasing you."

"Well, I really have to go. I'm already late," he said, hastily buttoning up the shirt again.

"Alright. Good luck today! It'll be okay."

Ichigo waved goodbye to Isshin as he ran down the street. He was curious as to why his father would tell him 'it'll be okay.' He was too distracted to think about it, only thinking of getting to work faster, but it seemed like Isshin knew more than he appeared to.

"Hey, Ichigo. Boss is calling for you," one of the workers informed him as he rushed through the door, huffing and puffing, completely out of breath.

Ichigo groaned. Only God knew what lecture Ikumi was going to give him today. Today was not his day. He was in a terrible mood, not only because he was late and Ikumi was most likely going to scream at the top of her lungs about it, but also because there wasn't one moment when he didn't feel like he was going to throw up. That's how nervous he was to talk to Orihime today. Every time he would forget about it, it would eventually pop into his brain again.

He walked into her office, not scared, but just curious as to what she was going to say. He was very used to this. "Ikumi, I'm really sorry I'm late. My alarm didn't go off and-"

"I don't care if your alarm didn't go off! I have so much that needs to be done and now I'm behind because of you. I don't think you-"

"…What?"

She stared at him with something he perceived to be concern. Now he himself was concerned. He'd never seen her make that kind of face before.

"Kid, what's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're as pale as a ghost and you look like you're about to throw up. What happened? You never look this bad."

Ichigo was a little astonished that his anxiety was visible. He thought he was concealing it pretty well, but that wasn't the case apparently. Even his boss noticed and she didn't really care much for people. He must have been a special exception in this case. "Gee, thanks," he remarked sarcastically. "And… um, no, it's nothing."

"You're such a bad liar." She grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him. "What happened? Girlfriend troubles? I'll go slap her if you want me to!"

Ichigo's eyes went wide. He was completely baffled because one, she was shaking him like a rag doll and two, what she volunteered was absolutely absurd.

"Well?" she yelled, giving him another round of shaking.

"It's none of your business," he said, looking away.

"Ah, so I was right! Well, don't worry about it, kid. It'll pass."

_Yeah, that depends…_

"Now go unload those boxes and come back here after you're done if I'm not already out there."

"Okay, but it would be nice if you let go of me." She looked at him stupidly and dropped her arms. He left.

She watched him as he left, closing the door behind him. _Something's really wrong with him.  
><em>

Ichigo slipped off his uniform shirt, now wearing a normal outfit. He made his way out of the supermarket and started walking toward Orihime's apartment. _Man, I've got to get a better job. I shouldn't be stuck working in a darn supermarket… oh goodness, I can't believe I'm actually heading to her place. _He suddenly changed his subject of thought. He was so nervous. He didn't really know what to expect what the 'so important thing' was that she had to tell him. A million possibly horrible scenarios were running through his mind and the anxiety was starting to kill him. He was scared that his suspicions of her being pregnant with her lover's baby were true. It was the one scenario he was trying to ignore, even though it kept gnawing at his brain, taunting and teasing him with its sheer possibility.

What was worse was that he worked on the opposite side of town which meant the walk to Orihime's house would be at least fifteen minutes. He was just going to be stuck in his thoughts the whole way there. After all, there's no escaping your own mind.

The closer he got to her apartment, the more fidgety he became, the more his heart beat, and the more his anxiety grew before it pretty much skyrocketed. When he had finally arrived, the trip up the stairs leading to her door was extremely taunting. He could just turn back now, avoiding the whole thing. She didn't even know he was there yet. If he didn't show up, she wouldn't force him to listen to her. But then there was just finally finding out the truth and learning if his doubts were true or not and even spending a little time with her, even though he didn't want to but still did. He was war with himself, wanting certain things, but needing others.

He kept walking the stairs and finally got to her door. He stood in front of it for what seemed like ten minutes, staring at its teal-like color. _I think I like you, door. Just you and I… no one else, no Orihime, no talking... Man, I'm so pathetic. _He blew out a long breath, really fed up with himself and the fears he had to face. He slid down the wall, neighboring the door, and just sat with his elbows on his knees, running his hands through his hair fussily. He hated being scared like this. It made feel him so vulnerable and as though he was doing a disservice to himself. He had to go in there no matter what. _Why do I even have to go through this? _he thought to himself in anguish.

He stood back, facing his friend the door, yet again. Now it was time to befriend the doorbell as well. He rang it.

Now his heart felt like it was about to jump out of his chest. Whatever conversation was awaiting him behind this door, he wasn't so sure he was ready for it anymore. He gulped at the sound of Orihime unlocking the door. _No turning back now._

"H-hello Ichigo. Uh… come in!" she gestured, opening the door and waving her hand toward the small living room.

He just stared at her for a few seconds, mentally preparing himself. "H-hey. Alright, thanks," he said, walking past her and sitting on the couch.

"Um… I made something I thought you'd like!"

Now he was really nervous, except this time because he was scared of whatever concoction she had created for him. He stared at her, wide eyed. "Uh… I'm a little scared. What did you make me?"

She laughed a little, albeit shakily. She was trying to make things as normal as possible. "Actually it's your favorite. Remember that chocolate thing I used to make you all the time?" she smiled slightly.

He looked down at the ground, remembering quite clearly. He had no idea what she put in it, but it was amazing and she used to make it for him whenever he had a bad day. The memory hurt to think about. He was excited to even be able to eat it again, but the memory saddened him and he really wished she hadn't mentioned it. Just knowing things would never be the same made memories like these hard to deal with. "Oh… yeah. I remember."

She noticed his discomfort and took that as her cue to go get it. She would leave him alone for a minute. "Then I'll go get it now! It's in the kitchen."

As she sauntered off and made herself busy in there, he sighed, asking himself what he was even doing here. He didn't think that the next time he would really get to talk to her, it would be like this.

She walked back into the room and sat next to him on the couch. "Um, here you go," she smiled. She was hoping it would lighten his mood, so that breaking the news to him wouldn't be even more horrifying.

She placed the bowl in his hand and he smiled. Oh, how she missed his smile so much, but this one was a sad one.

She gazed at him, observing his face with a concerned expression. "So… how's everything going?" she asked, wanting to start things off in a normal fashion.

"Oh, um… everything's okay, I guess. Dad's as normal as usual. I haven't seen much of Yuzu and Karin lately. They seem to be going out a lot more often now."

That made Orihime smile. She missed his family. "Aw, that's nice. They're growing up. I wonder how it feels to watch younger siblings grow."

He shrugged. "It is nice when you really do think about it. I haven't really been able to see them lately though anyway. I've been working so much. It's such a pain."

"Really?" she asked, a little too hopefully.

He looked her questioningly. "Yeah?..."

She laughed a bit. "Sorry. That's nice to hear! Where are you working?"

"The stupid downtown supermarket," he grudgingly stated, not so happy to mention it.

She smiled at his grumpy face. A job at the supermarket was definitely not a job suited for Ichigo. Staring at his cute scowl and upset look almost made her emotional. Being this close to him was almost foreign now and she hated things this way.

He didn't ask how she was doing in return. Ichigo was always one to forget his manners.

"You know… I really miss you," she almost whispered. The truth of that statement made her emotions run haywire. She already started feeling shaky.

He just stared at her with large shocked eyes. Part of him was extremely happy to hear that. No words could describe the magnitude of how much he missed her as well and he wanted to express that to her so badly, but the more logical side of him was not happy at all. "Yeah, well, you shouldn't be missing me. You have a boyfriend," he stated, turning away from her and placing the bowl on the little table in front of them.

_Is this it? Do I tell him now? _she asked herself, already panicking internally.

After a few moments of silence and him still not looking at her, she said, "I don't have a boyfriend..."

His scowl grew deeper and he turned to face her again. "What do you mean you 'don't have a boyfriend'?"

He saw the emotions dancing across her eyes. He saw how her lower lip quivered a bit. "Well, that day when you came over and I was going to tell you what was wrong… and I said, 'There's someone else in the picture,' I didn't mean another boyfriend." The whole time she said this, she spoke slowly and barely looked at him.

"What?" he asked, deeply confused, a bewildered expression on his face. "What the hell do you mean by that?" Were his suspicions about to be confirmed? _Whatever comes out of her mouth right now, I have to believe, _he thought to himself remembering his conversation with Tatsuki. Tatsuki never lied when it came to something serious. Having known her since he was a child and her being there for him during the tragedy of his mother dying, comforting him each day, really allowed his trust in her to grow. He just couldn't push Tatsuki's words aside like they were nothing.

"Well, when I said 'someone else,' I meant that… I mean that…" each time she said that phrase, the tears in her eyes flooded more and more and her voice cracked with emotion.

"Orihime… come on, look at me! What are you trying to tell me?" he asked, an almost scared look on his face as he stared at her with an intensity she had never seen before.

She wanted to follow his command and look him straight in the eye when she said it, but she could barely see him through her blurry vision of tears. Her face held so much emotion; he had to force himself to continue looking straight at her. All he wanted to do was envelop her in a hug and comfort her, but he wanted to be strong willed and not do anything along those lines until she gave him a good reason to do so.

"Hime, please… just tell me…" he pleaded sweetly, looking into her eyes.

"I… I'm-" she cut herself off, starting to sob a bit. Her small sobs eventually turned into shaky breaths as she attempted to stop herself from crying any further. She felt embarrassed for already crying this soon into the conversation. Ichigo waited patiently for her to stop the whole time. She almost looked sick. "I'm… pregnant."

Even though he had suspected it, it definitely did not hit him hard enough until now. He froze in his spot, unable to move, taking this news in. He shook his head furiously, looking very panicky. Orihime had never seen him like this before. This was not the reaction she was expecting or hoping for. His eyes were wide the whole time and never went back to their normal size.

"Orihime… are you lying?" he asked very shakily.

"N-no… why would I?" she asked miserably. "Ichigo… you are this baby's father." She searched his face for any sign of reaction, but all that stared back at her were his ridiculously widely opened eyes.

"If you're playing around… please stop because it's not funny." He kept repeating nonsense like this, refusing it to be true.

Orihime stood up and face him still sitting on the couch. She pushed back her baggy T-shirt up over her torso and revealed to him her swollen belly.

Seeing her belly slapped him in the face. It was real. It was true. This is what Tatsuki was talking about. _That's my baby in there, _he thought in amazement. _I just… I just can't believe it._

She knelt down in front of him, holding his hands, looking up at him. "Do you believe me now?"

He looked at her with an expression she couldn't quite read. Then he started to cry. "Yeah."

"We're going to be parents, Ichigo. We're going to be parents."

"Why didn't you go after me that day?" he asked so sadly, she didn't even recognize his voice.

"Because I was stupid… and I'm really sorry. After you told me that you were doubting me… I just thought that maybe you'd be better off with someone who you didn't doubt… I know, I know. It's so stupid and I'm so insecure and I completely regret doing what I did and I've missed you so much. I was just so scared of how you would react. I'm so sorry… Please forgive me," she cried, lowering her head so that he couldn't see her face. She wholeheartedly broke down right then and there.

Ichigo stared down at her shaking form. He wanted to comfort her and reassure her, but he was just too shocked. He didn't realize that even though he had suspicions, they hadn't become real until now. And he didn't expect that she would be pregnant with his child on top of that.

"But… but why did you let me believe that lie? I suffered all this time thinking it really happened. Just the thought of you being with someone else other than me tore me to pieces. Don't you understand that?" he asked, truly befuddled, emotion seeping in his voice.

She stayed quiet in response, knowing nothing she said would really make her faults sound any better. Her actions were unjustifiable. She was completely at his mercy right now and she begged and prayed he would forgive her even if it took months.

She slowly stood up and pulled her shirt back down. "I'm going to go to my room for a minute. You need to be alone right now," she stated knowingly, wiping the tears from her eyes.

He didn't look at her as she left the room. Receiving no response from him left Orihime thinking every negative thought one could think of. She went inside her room and started bawling the second she closed the door. She plopped onto her bed and buried her face in the pillows, muffling her sobs so Ichigo wouldn't hear. _What if he never forgives me? What if he never wants to be my boyfriend again? I'm so terrible and stupid for doing what I did… what if he doesn't understand that I really am sorry? _

The cruel reality of a possibly bad future made her gut wrench. She cried and barely stopped, scared of what decision Ichigo would come to. She was wallowing in her misery for a good five minutes until she heard Ichigo's muffled footsteps walking toward her door. She sat up immediately and tried to wipe away all black marks of makeup on her face. She looked in the mirror and realized it was useless. She looked like such a mess. And a mess is exactly what she felt like.

He knocked on her door lightly. "Can I come in?"

"Yes…" she spoke softly.

He slowly opened the door and came inside, immediately meeting her puffy pink eyes. The bags around them were swollen, her eyes were bloodshot, and her makeup left black streaks down her cheeks. He gazed at her sadly, hating seeing her like this. He really wished he wasn't in this situation right now, but ultimately, her being in this condition was what she deserved.

The sadness in his eyes was so great, it shocked Orihime. She looked away from him, embarrassed that he was seeing her like this. She heard him walk over to her and with each step he took, her heart beat faster. Her anticipation built, not knowing what to expect he would do or say.

He stood in front of her as she stayed seated on her bed. He took a deep breath and grabbed both her hands, gently holding them in his. She looked up at him, eyes wide. They stayed like that in pure silence for a few moments, so much being communicated in that quietness.

Ichigo could feel her pulse racing underneath his fingertips. She was so nervous. After being left alone for a bit, he was actually rather calm now, having sorted out all his thoughts.

"I love you. That's not going to change," he smiled slightly. "I just wish you hadn't kept this from me. I still can't believe you did this to me."

He looked into her eyes. Just by looking at her, he could almost tangibly feel the regret emanating from her. He knew how sorry she really was and he just wanted her back. "I'll learn to forgive you. I don't know if I can at this very moment, but I need you to forgive me eventually as well because… I was the idiot who didn't even let you finish saying what you had to say. I'm just so stupid for getting mad so quickly. It's just that… I knew you were keeping something from me and I just… I just didn't know what to do about it. I want you back in my life though and if we're going to have this baby, we need to make things work." He smiled at her, but the determination in his eyes overpowered that smile more than anything.

She nodded rapidly, wanting nothing but to agree with him. She could live with him not fully forgiving her for a while. She smiled just a tad. "I love you too. That's not going to change either and I forgive you… right now. I don't care how long it takes for you to forgive me. I'm just so happy right now."

He crouched down a bit and wiped a small tear that escaped her eye unnoticed by her. He brushed some hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. He hadn't been this close to her in for what felt like years and he missed it.

He leaned in to kiss her, but only on the forehead and he hugged her. She hugged back with much enthusiasm through her strong hold on him. She didn't want to let go. She wanted to stay like this forever. She had been hungry for a simple hug as this from him for so long.

He smiled, noticing that she wanted to stay just like this, so they did. It was almost like being reunited in a sense. Having been apart for what felt like so long to them, they savored this embrace and drank in each others' presence.

"I can't believe I'm going to be a… a father," he whispered in her ear.

"It will all sink in soon. I promise," she smiled.

They pulled away from each other, a smile on his face as well. "Go wash up. I'll be in the living room."

"But shouldn't you be going home now? It's starting to get late."

He looked at her as though she were crazy. "Hime, I haven't spoken to you in more than a month and you really expect me to leave right now?"

"I don't know. I just thought…"

"Well, you thought wrong. I've missed you so much…"

She smiled, so excited to hear those words. "Okay. I'm glad you're here then."

"I am too."

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><p>Okay, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I know that Orihime was very hopeful when he mentioned he has a job and stuff, but don't worry, she isn't only thinking about his money and I'm sure I made that clear.<p>

Please just be patient with my busy schedule, guys! I hope to have the next chapter up within this week. I'll try my best. I love you all! (:

~Yono~


	8. Chapter VIII

Hello people! Happy to be updating again! I feel so unprofessional by doing this, but I didn't edit the chapter. It kills me, but I think five days of no updates is enough. So forgive me if you see any silly errors. My busy schedule still has not ended for me yet. Not even close! So please enjoy this chapter. New things will be developing.

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter VIII_

Ichigo was in a bittersweet mood for several reasons today. One, he was working at the cash register because so far Ikumi hadn't asked him to do anything for her. That was most definitely a relief. The last thing he needed was her prying into his business like last time. Two, he was starting to get pretty excited about being a dad. Although he was young, the thought still made him feel warm with joy. It barely ever left his mind since Orihime told him. He spent the first week letting the reality sink in, constantly pacing up and down his room. Sometimes, he would even just stare at the wall for at least an hour just wondering how he was going to be an effective father in less than five months. And for the last two weeks, he just enjoyed the thought. He didn't care how much responsibility came along with having a child. He took this as the process of becoming a man having to be sped up. He would just have to grow up a lot faster, but he didn't even know how hard that would be for him when the time came.

He couldn't even bring himself to tell his father. Whenever he thought about it, it just brought him down. He wasn't one to usually tell his father everything, but he knew something as serious as this obviously had to be told. Every time Orihime asked if she could come over his house, he would make up some sort of excuse. She knew he hadn't told Isshin yet and she kept bugging him to because he would have to eventually. He didn't want his family to see Orihime pregnant. It was completely obvious now that she was a little over five months pregnant. He felt absolutely horrible for basically hiding her from his father and sisters, but it was just really hard to bring himself to tell his dad. He just couldn't imagine sitting down to have a talk with his father and tell him Orihime was pregnant with _his_ baby. It was almost unfathomable to him. He would constantly push the thought aside whenever it popped up, putting it on the backburner. It always turned his mood sour because he felt guilty for it. He couldn't quite be happy about his baby with thoughts of the conversation with his dad looming over his shoulders.

Ichigo sighed. He was currently scanning a million coupons some lady brought with her, along with all the items she was buying. She had over seventy coupons! He felt like he'd been here with the same exact customer for over twenty minutes and he was starting to get antsy and irritated. Who really brings this many coupons when they are shopping?

"What's wrong, young man?" the older woman smiled sweetly.

"Long day is all."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. All my coupons probably aren't helping; are they?"

He did not respond because if he had, he knew he would have made a rude comment. He just continued scanning them, finally reaching the last one. He stared at the numbers on the screen, displaying how much money she had saved. He gawked at the screen, in awe at how much money she saved.

"Man, you saved almost one hundred bucks. That's amazing."

She laughed. "Yes, I'm always cutting out coupons! I need to save the money because I have so many bills to pay and I have two teenage sons at home. Kids are expensive," she mused.

Ichigo froze for a second, but continued working, punching buttons on the cash register and handing her the receipt. "H-how expensive can they be?"

"Well, the only thing that's really quite expensive at first is diapers. At least when your child is only a baby, you don't have to pay for school or anything like that. It just gets more expensive as time goes on," she said, reflecting back many years.

Ichigo nodded. "Right…"

"But even if they are expensive, my sons are the best thing that ever happened to me. When I found out I was pregnant with the first one, I was so excited. Even though they're a lot of work, they are such a blessing," she smiled.

Ichigo smiled back. "Yeah, I think I can understand that."

"What? No, you can't. What are you? Twenty or something?"

"Eighteen…" he said, looking away. He was embarrassed to be so young and know that he was the father of an unborn baby, even if this woman didn't know so.

"You still have so many years left in you! Wait before you have children," she laughed.

He didn't respond, growing very quiet. Even though he came off as rude, he just couldn't bring himself to look at the unknowing lady.

She noticed his change in mood, feeling guilty for being the cause of it, even though she had no idea why. "… Okay, well, have a nice day!" she exclaimed, grabbing all her grocery bags. "I hope to have you as my cashier the next time I shop here. It was a pleasure meeting you!"

He waved goodbye, as she speed walked out of the store like any mom on-the-go.

He had considered all the work that would need to be put into having a baby and he knew he could barely even prepare for it, but he was scared. Really scared. He didn't have a high paying job and wouldn't have one until he was certified in a better paying field… which would be after college. Orihime lost her job and after the baby would be born, she wouldn't be able to find another one because she would be home taking care of the baby. It was such a hazy mess. Sure, they didn't have to worry about these issues for another few months, but all these decisions had to be made before the baby arrived. All these elements affected their child's life and now this woman who sparked a conversation with Ichigo really had him thinking.

"So I think it's a girl!" Orihime exclaimed to her friends. They all went out to eat at a small diner, not having spent time with each other all summer.

"Really? Why?" Rukia asked, really enthusiastic about this.

"Hm… I don't know. I just do… maybe it's just because I want it to be a girl. Who knows?" Orihime shrugged.

"That is a very poor and illogical way to assume the child is a girl Inoue," Ishida said matter-of-factly.

"I know, but it's just nice to imagine!"

"I kind of want it to be a boy just because they're feistier. I could teach him to be tough," Tatsuki laughed.

"I believe that will be my job," Ichigo declared, having just walked into the diner from work. He slid into the booth beside Orihime, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Yo Ichigo," Sado greeted.

"Hey Sado."

"How was work, Ichi?" Orihime smiled sweetly at him.

"Oh… um, it was okay, I guess. Nothing special," he half-lied.

"Ha, I still find it hilarious that you work at a supermarket. It's just so not like you," Rukia chuckled.

Ichigo glared daggers at her. "Well, I don't like it much. I want to see you work for Ikumi and see if you would survive."

"I bet you I could!"

"No you wo- yeah, you probably would," he admitted in defeat. Rukia and Ikumi were very much alike in personality. She would survive, but they wouldn't be able to tolerate each other.

Orihime sighed. "I'm so hungry… they're taking forever to serve us," she pouted.

"Did you guys order for me?" Ichigo asked.

"Yeah."

"So what were you guys talking about before I got here?"

"If your kid's going to be a boy or a girl," Ishida stated.

"What do you want it to be, Ichigo?" asked Sado.

Ichigo hadn't really put much thought into it. So far, he'd come to the conclusion that he really didn't care. "Um… I don't really know. I mean, a boy would be awesome. I would love that," he smiled. "But a girl would be too. I mean, I don't know how it feels to have a 'daddy's little girl,' but I would be excited to find out. There are so many amazing things that could happen depending on what it is."

His friends all looked at him as he continued listing possible future scenarios which could occur if he had either or. They noticed how emotional and involved he became when speaking about it. They all saw the happiness and anticipation in his eyes. He just seemed so happy to be having a kid. They didn't expect such an admirable response from him.

Orihime noticed this as well, except she was got to see him in action. He would always be talking to about it. It was the sweetest thing she had ever witnessed. It never tired her when he would bring up the baby. She felt exactly the same way he did. She watched him as he continued rambling on about the baby, just looking at him in a loving way, so happy he was the father of her baby.

The waitress came to serve them their food, waking Orihime from her reverie. The smell of the food made her ridiculously happy. The smell or sight of certain foods didn't make her sick anymore and she was barely ever tired. At this stage in her pregnancy, she was feeling amazing and she loved it. She could finally enjoy it more now especially since she was eating so much more than she used to. While everyone at the table was eating one plate of food, she had two and they were both completely full.

All her friends gawked at her as she went into action, eating everything with such vigor. Ichigo just laughed. He saw her doing this all the time. After a while, instead of being shocked by it, he found it to be quite amusing. It was just very odd for her friends to see her eating so much food. Although she had always eaten the weirdest things, she still never ate that much. This was a new experience for them.

In the middle of stuffing rice into her mouth, she looked up at them, realizing they had been fixated by her eating. "What?" she asked, speaking with a full mouth.

They all slowly came out of their state of fascination and started eating themselves.

"You eat like a monster, Orihime," Tatsuki said.

Orihime giggled, a bit embarrassed, turning red. "Heh, yeah, I know. It gets kind of embarrassing sometimes, but I can't really do anything about-"

Her phone began vibrating and beeping. _I wonder who that could be… _She reached for her phone and read the small letters. She stared at the screen with wide eyes and an open mouth. Then she slapped herself on the forehead. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she kept muttering to herself.

"What? What is it? What's wrong?" Ichigo asked. He was already starting to worry.

"I forgot about something…"

"What did you forget?"

She seemed to hesitate… for too long. Each of her friends were looking at her with looks of anticipation.

"I kind of forgot that I have to go to the doctor today for a checkup on the baby and I. I have to be there in an hour. My phone just told me so…" she confessed, referring to the alarm she preset on it.

"Oh, okay. Well, then go. Maybe we can all go to the movies another time then. There are two weeks of summer left after all," Rukia smiled.

Orihime smiled. She was so glad her friends were okay with this. She felt terribly guilty for having to ruin their plans for the rest of the night just because she was so forgetful. Then she realized something… Ichigo had never gone for a checkup with her before. The last one she had was a month ago and she hadn't told him at that time. Now she was nervous. She wondered if even wanted to go. "Do you want to come, Ichi?"

He took a second to think before he spoke. "Should that question even be asked?" he teased. He stood up and walked toward the door, saying goodbye to everyone, waiting for Orihime as she enthusiastically hugged Rukia and Tatsuki and waved farewell to the boys.

She pulled a water bottle out of her purse. "I have to drink lots of fluid before I go."

"Why?"

"I don't remember. Apparently an ultrasound's more effective that way."

"So where is this place?" he asked her, gently holding her hand. They had already walked a few blocks, him allowing her to lead the way the whole time.

"It's a pregnancy center around here. The doctors are the nicest people I've ever met! And they don't charge that much for the ultrasounds."

"Oh, so I'm not the nicest person you've ever met?"

She whacked him in the arm and laughed. "Stop it!"

He smiled. Being playful like this with her had finally begun to become normal for them. After three weeks of trying to work things out and talk more, they were both feeling more and more comfortable. Even though that was definitely fortunate, he still hadn't forgiven her. In his heart, that forgiveness was somewhat close, but still not close enough. Sometimes the lie she told him would pop into his head and just upset him all over again and sometimes he would need to be away from her not to think about it. He hated things being this way, but he couldn't help it. Those episodes were becoming less frequent though and slowly he was allowing himself to forget about the past, but he wasn't fully there yet. He just hoped he could forgive her in his heart soon and tell her so too. But for now, they would mend their relationship slowly.

After walking a few more blocks, they arrived at the pregnancy center. Orihime checked in with the secretary, letting them know she was here.

Ichigo felt very awkward. There were so many pregnant women in here, it almost freaked him out. Too many round bellies for his taste. He also felt somewhat self-conscious. He and Orihime were one of the only teen couples in the lobby. It made him feel as though everyone was watching them. He wouldn't lie to himself. He felt this way a majority of the time when they were out.

After waiting for about a half hour, Orihime felt like she was about to pee in her pants after having drank two water bottles. Ichigo couldn't help but laugh a little at her fidgety movements. "You know if you keep moving, you're probably just making it worse for yourself."

She stopped moving around so much, realizing he was right. After another few minutes, the secretary called for them. Orihime and Ichigo were led to a small dimly lit room with a monitor and bed. Ichigo was really nervous. He had never been to one of these appointments and didn't really know what to expect.

"Hello Orihime-chan! How are you?" the doctor greeted. She seemed to be a pleasant young woman who already knew Orihime from previous appointments. She noticed Ichigo as well. "Hello there, I'm Takumi Sawako," she stated, reaching her hand out to shake his.

He shook her hand, being polite. "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo."

She noticed his slight trepidation. "There's no need to be nervous! This is going to be very quick. We're just making sure to see if everything's all right with the baby and Orihime." She gestured for Orihime to lay down. Orihime pulled her shirt up over her belly. Takumi put gel on her belly and turned on the screen.

"Come here, Ichigo. Sit down. It's the coolest thing to see!" Orihime exclaimed.

Ichigo sat down beside the bed while Takumi placed a device over the gel and then an image appeared on the screen.

"Look, that's the baby's face. And those are its hands and feet," the doctor said, pointing to certain spots on the screen.

Orihime was so pleased to see this. Seeing new developments in her child was such a beautiful thing. It made her so happy.

Ichigo, on the other hand, having only seen his baby for the first time, couldn't peel his eyes off the screen. He was trying to discern what was what. He could see the spine and cute toes. He could see a little nose too… maybe. He had no idea, but it was fascinating. He couldn't even describe what seeing his baby for the first time felt like. While Orihime was elated, he was starting to get a little misty eyed.

Orihime grabbed his hand. "Isn't this amazing, Ichigo?"

He nodded. If he spoke, he would probably choke. Orihime noticed the small little tears in his eyes. He was trying to fight them. She could see him struggling not to blink. That sight made her start to cry a bit. He squeezed her hand.

Takumi smiled at them. "Guess what?"

"What?" Orihime responded.

"Well, one, as of now, I don't see any complications. Everything looks great and the baby looks healthy, but I will need you to come back in about two weeks to run other tests just in case. Two, I could tell you the sex of the baby right now if you wanted me to. I already see what it is."

Orihime scowled. "Such a hard decision…"

Ichigo, not really being someone who liked surprises wanted to know. "I want to know, but only if that's okay with you…"

She gave it some thought. "Well, if you want to know, then I want to know too," she smiled.

"Okay, ready?" the doctor asked.

They both nodded, breathing in deeply. Their hearts were pounding. Their lives could be so different depending on what the sex of the baby was. It was a pretty amazing truth.

"You're having a baby girl."

"YAY! I'm so excited. A girl is exactly what I wanted," Orihime beamed.

Ichigo smiled a toothy grin. He hadn't really wanted the baby to be any specific gender, but a girl was nice. He didn't know how having a 'daddy's little girl' would really feel like, but he heard it was very sweet and he was excited to find out how his life would be affected by his daughter. The intensity of emotions he felt was indescribable.

"That's really all though!" the doctor said, wiping the gel off of Orihime's exposed stomach. "Just mark down the date for your next appointment and I'll see you then." Takumi left the room.

Now that they were alone, they just stared at each other, smiling. "This is so exciting, Ichigo… but you really need to tell your dad. It's not fair that he doesn't know."

He looked down at the floor and sighed. "Yeah… I know. I especially have to now that we know we're having… a daughter."

She placed a hand on his shoulder, a gesture to comfort him. They stared at each other for a few moments.

He pushed aside a strand hair from her face and placed his hand on her cheek. He just gazed at her, admiring her beauty. He pictured how his daughter would look years from now. Hopefully just as beautiful as her mother. "She's going to be a princess, just like you."

Orihime placed her hand over this, smiling. She looked away once she started blushing. "You're going to be an amazing father, Ichigo."

"And you're going to be an amazing mother."

Their tender moment was broken when Orihime realized she really had to pee. "I really have to use the bathroom. Wait for me in the lobby!" she said, running out of the room. He laughed at her clumsiness.

Today was a good day. Definitely unforgettable.

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><p>Some of you guys might think Ichigo is being ridiculous, but I've been in situations where I'm totally cool with someone and we're normal, but I haven't forgiven them in my heart yet. Consider what he's been through (not saying he isn't at fault either though).<p>

Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Reviews would be great. Hope to update soon. (:

~Yono~


	9. Chapter IX

Hello guys! Wow, I can't believe I have not updated for almost two weeks. It's very weird for me. I've been very busy with work and such. I have a lot going on in the month of May. It's so packed. Well, anyway, I enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you enjoy reading it. (:

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter IX_

"Goodness, thank God it's summer because I can't fit into any of my pants," Orihime muttered to herself. She had already encountered this small reality many weeks ago, but now that she was constantly wearing dresses – and didn't have enough of them to wear so often – it came to her attention. She really did love wearing all these loose fitting clothes though and now that she had nothing to hide, she happily showed off her baby bump to the world. It was a relief to be able to do that, especially after having to hide it for a time back before she told Ichigo.

She looked down at her belly which continued to grow week by week. It was an incredible phenomenon to really know there was a baby inside of her – her baby. She wiggled her toes into the plush carpet underneath her feet, thankful she could at least still see them a bit. The more her belly grew, the less she could see her feet whenever she looked down. It was a very odd thing. She wasn't used to it.

Although she went through the period of time in her pregnancy when everything felt great, that was slowly starting to change. Now that she was already twenty-six weeks pregnant, sleeping was starting to become a little bit difficult. The bigger she got, the more uncomfortable sleep became. And with the heartburn and leg cramps, it was even harder. So now, she was constantly somewhat sleepy. Each of her friends would get annoyed with her when they were in mid-conversation and she was snoozing off. This baby was tiring her out!

But even with all that discomfort and pain, her baby girl was kicking like crazy. Feeling the fluttering movements was quite amazing. The first time it happened (many weeks ago), it caught her completely off guard. She had been watching her favorite show and eating tons of ice cream when all of a sudden she felt the tiniest little flurry poke her inside. She had paused everything she was doing just to wait for it again. And she kicked her again! Orihime thought it was the cutest thing. She was imagining her daughter trying to explore the space around her, moving her tiny limbs and getting to know her temporary home better. Orihime pictured what she looked like prodding around inside her… maybe like an alien, but an adorable one nonetheless.

Back then though, it was just tiny little flurries of movement Orihime felt. Now that the baby had grown much since then, her little girl would kick her so ferociously sometimes that it would literally hurt. Orihime would gently poke her in return. Sometimes it was fun and sometimes it wasn't.

Orihime lay on her bed, just wanting to rest for a few minutes. She wanted to spend some time with Ichigo today, but he was helping his father cook dinner since Yuzu wouldn't be getting home on time to make it like she usually did. She sighed, feeling lonely in her small apartment and having nothing to do.

The baby kicked her again. This time it was hard, but it didn't hurt all that much. She poked at her stomach, slightly feeling the shape of her ever so tiny foot. According to the doctor, she would be able to grab her foot in a few weeks. _That's going to be so cool!_ Orihime thought to herself. She often had fun playing these kick and poke games with her daughter.

She began thinking of how her daughter would look. She would obviously have some sort of orange hair. She had to, but she also wondered who she would look more like… herself or Ichigo? _Oh, I'm so excited to see her! _She imagined all the cute little dresses and bows her daughter would wear. She hadn't even gone shopping for those things yet. Maybe she could spend her evening shopping for her baby's clothes! The more she thought about it though, the more she realized she didn't have any money on her. She had some of the money her relatives sent to support her, but she needed to save that for groceries and the next monthly payment they would send her she wouldn't get for another two weeks or so.

Orihime sighed. _I wish I was never fired from my job…_ Being fired from her job was scary mainly because in all these months of her pregnancy, she could be saving at least some money for the baby and in cases like these, she could have easily gone out shopping right now for some baby clothes, but she was deprived of that because of having no paycheck. The dependence and frustration of the situation made her very upset. _This really stinks… oh well- wait! I never picked up my paycheck. Wow, Orihime, way to forget something that important._ She was supposed to get her paycheck weeks ago, but it completely skipped her mind and the fact that her boss never called to remind her that she had money waiting for her did not help the cause. He most likely thought she didn't deserve it or something along those lines. She honestly felt bad for the man. He was so caught up in his anger and frustration at life that he could never live it to its fullest degree of contentment. She was thankful she wasn't like him at all, along with his wife. She just wondered what could have possibly ever happened to him that he became the man he currently was.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she decided she would go pick up the check. The bakery was still open and it wasn't dark outside at all. She might as well since she had nothing else to do. She just hoped she wouldn't have to pry the check out of Jou's hands. Knowing him, he most likely wouldn't even want her to have it. Having to deal with a person like him, even for a few minutes, was really challenging and she wasn't looking forward to it.

She slipped on a pair of shorts and a somewhat snug t-shirt, all the while strongly hoping Jou's wife would be there. It would be so much easier if she was.

The doorbell rang. She had no idea who it possibly was since all her friends were busy anyway. When she opened the door, there stood her obviously irritated boyfriend.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking at him with concern.

"For one, my dad is just being his ridiculous self." He sat down on the small white couch. "I can't even be in the room with him for more than ten minutes, let alone cook a dinner for four with him. He just drives me crazy! And two, I'm just annoyed at myself…"

She sat down next to him. "Why?" Wanting to console him, she placed her hand on his shoulder, rubbing it soothingly. At her touch, he relaxed a little, shoulders sagging.

"Because I… every opportunity I get, I don't take. I still haven't told him anything and you're going to be in your seventh month in two weeks! The fact that I've waited so long to tell him anything is going to crush him and… I just feel insanely weak. He asks me how you're doing all the time and I just beat around the bush. I think being with him drives me nuts more than he does himself. I just get really nervous when I'm with him alone. I don't know what it is that's holding me back…" he said, looking away from her, feeling embarrassed for his stupid actions.

"Fear… but Ichigo, you really can't wait any longer. This is starting to get ridiculous. Your father should have the privilege of preparing for the birth of his granddaughter just like us… and I really miss your family. These are the months when I should be with your family. Please consider telling him sometime this week. Please…"

He remained silent. Thinking about all of this gave him a headache. What was more painful than the headache was the acknowledgement of his acts of cowardice. He sure felt like an idiot who was scared out of his wits and he really despised it.

After a few more moments of silence and Orihime's patience, he finally spoke again. "I know you're right, but just imagine being in my shoes. It's not easy telling someone something of this magnitude… especially since I've made it worse for myself."

"I do know how you feel. I had to tell you which was one of the hardest things I've had to do since I made it worse for myself too… just do it or I'll show up at your house with this belly," she declared, patting it.

"That's not funny."

She laughed at his serious face. "You know I was kidding."

"Yeah," he smiled.

"So… when I got fired from my job, I completely forgot to call them so I could get my paycheck," she announced, completely changing the topic.

"Hime, that was at the beginning of summer. It's already the last week of summer. Why are you remembering now?"

"Well, because I thought that I needed some money to buy our baby clothes and the other essentials. And then I remembered that I still had that paycheck to pickup… so come with me because I'm going now!" she said, getting up, already ready to leave out the door.

Ichigo grumbled. He came here to relax, but now he had to walk to the bakery. "The things I do for you," he teased, following after her.

She giggled. "Stop being such a grump. It's not a big deal. The bakery isn't nearly as far away as your job."

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><p>The bells chimed as they opened the door to the bakery, arriving there about ten minutes later.<p>

"Orihime!" Ami greeted ecstatically, running over to Orihime enveloping her in a tight hug. Ami was an employee at the bakery. When Orihime had worked there, Ami had become one of her closest friends. They both consoled each other in a sense. Ami was constantly having troubles at home and Orihime knew how to placate her and when Orihime became pregnant and Jou started discriminating against her, Ami was always by her side after an episode would occur.

"I miss you Ami!"

"I do too! Can I feel it?" she asked, referring to Orihime's round belly.

Orihime laughed. "Yes, of course."

"Wow, it feels… not what I expected it feel like I guess. I just really can't believe there's a baby inside there. Isn't it just incredible?" she wondered in awe, rubbing small circles over Orihime's belly.

"I know! I think about that all the time! Ami this is my boyfriend, Ichigo."

"Hello there!"

"Hey," he said, very nonchalantly. Ami seemed to be a very energetic, bubbly person. Her energy was making his go down.

"So… why are you guys here?"

"I forgot to pick up my paycheck… weeks ago."

Ami laughed at Orihime's ridiculous forgetfulness. "I'll go grab boss then." She turned around already starting to walk away.

"No! Could you please grab Ayane instead…"

Ami noticed how Orihime started biting on her bottom lip, her hands wrung together. She was obviously nervous. It made sense. Why would she even think of getting Jou? Ami smiled and nodded, turning away again.

Ichigo walked over to a table, sitting down. He beckoned Orihime over. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I just really don't want to talk to Jou… you know, that mean boss I told you about. I can only imagine what he would say to me when he sees how big I've gotten."

"What's his problem?" His face contorted into an expression of compressed anger.

"I don't know. Hard life? But please… don't lash out on him or anything. I just want to grab the check and go." And completely avoid Jou.

"You shouldn't let this idiot get you all upset. No one should and it makes me really angry to see you like this because of some jerk that takes his problems out on you."

"I know, but I kind of feel bad for him…"

"Why would you feel bad for him?" He really didn't comprehend her way of thinking.

"I don't know. I just…" she trailed off, not really wanting to talk about it any longer. The way Jou had treated her while she worked here almost scarred her a bit, as much as she didn't want to admit it.

Ichigo noticed her hesitation. He knew she was growing uncomfortable and didn't want to go on with this topic any longer. "I'm sorry. We won't talk about it again."

"If he ends up being the one to give me this paycheck and not his wife, just please promise me you won't say anything and just bite your tongue… please?"

Ichigo actually thought about it. "I can't really make any guarantees." The mortified look on her face made him immediately change his mind. "Okay, okay. I'll really try hard not to say anything."

He saw her relax, her tense shoulders dropping.

Ami came walking toward them. "Ayane will see you in her office," she smiled.

Orihime was so relieved; she practically skipped to the back of the bakery. Ichigo followed.

Ayane greeted Orihime in a tight hug, clearly happy to see one of her once favorite employees. Orihime was almost like the daughter she never had. She also greeted Ichigo, introducing herself, pleased to finally meet him.

"You're getting so big Orihime!"

"I know! I just can't wait for her to come!"

"Her?" she smiled.

"Yes, it's a girl! Just what I wanted."

"Aw, how very sweet. Well, you'll need this paycheck to help you out at least a little, right?"

Orihime nodded. "I was actually thinking about buying her some clothes with this money. I was thinking about it today and then I remembered I never picked up my paycheck. I'm so sorry I forgot."

"It's all right. No one has to know about it. I kept it safe from Jou," she teased. She handed her the check. "Here you go."

"Thank you Ayane. It was great seeing you again."

"And you too. Nice meeting you, Kurosaki. Be careful guys!" she waved goodbye as they left her office.

"What is she doing here?" Jou asked Ami.

Ami gulped. "Uh… her paycheck, sir."

He rolled his eyes. "She's lucky I'm too tired to snatch it right out of her hands." He stared at her and that round growing belly that made him sick. He also noticed the carrot top following her. The boy had a deep scowl in his brow and an intense gaze in his eyes. "Tsk, he looks like nothing but trouble."

"Oh no, he's just quiet. I've heard great things about him!"

"Get to work out!" he shouted. Ami yelped and scampered away, having said too much.

He stared at the couple as they left, walking out the door, the bells chiming. He was glad they left because he didn't want to see them again.

* * *

><p>"Ah! I'm so happy we avoided Jou!"<p>

The fact that she was so scared of the man really concerned him. What things had he done or said to her that made her feel this way? He didn't respond, too lost in his thoughts. She noticed how quiet he was being, so she mimicked that as well.

After walking in silence for a few minutes, Ichigo's phone rang, disturbing the stillness.

"What?... What do you mean I have to go down there now?... There's no way I'm going to!... Ugh, okay, fine, but it better be quick. It's my day off for crying out loud!"

"What happened? You have to go to work?"

"Yes!" he roared. "My dumb boss needs me to lift some boxes because there are no 'strong men' working right now. Yeah, right. She just likes to annoy me and treat me like she's my sergeant or something. And on top of that it's, like, fifteen minutes away from here," he added, making the situation worse for himself.

"More time for us to spend together," she smiled.

Her cute comment, and not to mention cute smile, made him lighten up. "Yeah, but what are you going to do while I'm _working_?" He practically spat the word.

"Hm… I can buy some stuff!" She declared, holing up her paycheck.

"Yeah, but that's for her," he said, gesturing toward her stomach with his eyes.

"I know. I'm sure I could find some stuff there."

As they started approaching the store, with only about a minute or two of walking left, he realized that he would be walking into work with his noticeably pregnant girlfriend. He knew almost everyone who worked at the supermarket and there was no doubt in his mind that everyone there tonight would be staring at Orihime. He never spewed his personal life at work. The employees were just people he worked with and didn't really speak much to unless he had to. He only talked a bit to one guy really. But not even that one guy knew that his girlfriend was pregnant.

He immediately felt self-conscious and embarrassed. What would people think about him? And Orihime? They both looked so young to be having a child and he knew it. Whenever he was with Orihime, they would get stares all the time. He usually just ignored it, but since these people weren't strangers but more people he spent many hours with during the week, it was somewhat different. Different because he would see them tomorrow and never hear the end of it.

_Oh my goodness. How is boss going to react? _He hit his forehead with the heel of his hand.

"What's wrong, Ichi?"

He looked at her, trying to hide his discomfort. "Oh, nothing. Still upset about the fact that I have to come here now."

She knew he was lying, or at least half lying, but she didn't push him. Instead, she looped her hand through his and gave it a small squeeze.

He gazed at her with what looked like gratefulness. He seemed to calm down at her touch and gave her hand a tiny squeeze back.

They walked into the store. He walked past some of the cash register aisles, trying to walk away from them as quickly as possible. Getting to his boss' office is what would be tough. Plenty of workers were walking around the store as costumers swarmed the place.

On his way to the office, two workers did a double take at them, but he just ignored them and kept walking. When he finally made it to Ikumi's door, he froze. He was most scared of how Ikumi would react, not that he should care much, but when one meets someone like her, it's hard not to care.

"Is that you Ichigo?" Ikumi yelled from inside her office. "I can see your bright orange head through this stupid foggy glass!"

He slowly creaked open the door, coming inside.

"Finally! I've been waiting for you. Even if you're not working, you've got to be here as soon as possible when I call… you." She had paused before she finished her sentence at the sight of Orihime peeking in behind Ichigo. Not only was she not expecting to see this mystery girl Ichigo had spoken about in the past, but the fact that she was pregnant really caught her off guard.

Ikumi saw how nervous Ichigo was. _So this is what he's been hiding._ "Hello there… Ichigo's girlfriend…" She was trying to be as polite as possible and not look at her belly.

"I'm Orihime," she smiled.

"Ah, yes Orihime, nice to meet you. Uh, but yes. Go lift the boxes… Jun is going to help you. He's in the deli department…" she couldn't even fully focus on what she was saying. She felt like she was babbling.

Ichigo didn't even retaliate. He just agreed and left with his girlfriend, guiding her out the door. The fact that he didn't say anything back to her really made her realize how nervous he felt. She felt anxious for him because no one here knew about Orihime or their baby. _Goodness, kid._

* * *

><p>"That's the last of the dumb boxes," Ichigo declared, wiping his hands on his jeans, even though they weren't dirty.<p>

"Thanks buddy," Jun said.

"Why hello there, young man!" a woman exclaimed.

Ichigo had to turn around to see who could possibly be speaking to him. When he turned around, he saw a small middle-aged woman with long dark brown hair. He had no idea who she was and just stared at her.

She laughed at herself. "I'm slightly embarrassed that I even expected you to remember me. We spoke a few weeks ago. You were my cashier…"

Ichigo just continued to stare at her blankly, shaking his head. "I'm sorry…"

She blushed. She tried to find some words to trigger his memory. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms. Apparently this helped her think. "Uh… my two boys... babies and how they're expensive!…"

That last part definitely sparked his memory and he finally remembered her. "Oh! Yeah, uh, sorry I didn't really remember you. That was kind of a while ago…"

"Oh, don't worry about it," she said, with a wave of her hand. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. How are you?"

"I'm doing pretty well! But what's wrong? You seem so down. You were much more talkative last time we spoke."

Ichigo feigned a small laugh, trying to be polite. "Heh, yeah. Life's just a little hectic right now."

"I understand," she smiled. "Well, since you're here, could you show me where I could find some baby things. My sister's having a baby and I wanted to buy some little things for her."

Ichigo agreed, leading her past about four aisles and turning down the fifth one. "As you can see, this entire wall is full of anything from binkies to formula."

"Thank you very much, young man… you know, I really enjoy speaking with you. There's just something about you!" she smiled a motherly grin.

He even smiled back. He admitted that her sweet personality reminded him of his own mother. It was nice having someone like this to talk to, even if it was just small talk. "You're welcome."

"Ichigo!" He heard a very delighted squeal coming from his girlfriend. He hadn't even noticed her. He turned around to find her holding a pair of pink baby booties, dangling them right before her face. "Aren't they adorable?"

As much as he wanted to audibly agree that they were adorable and as much as he wanted to smile with Orihime over their baby's first pair shoes, he couldn't. He stared in horror as the lady looked at Orihime. He visibly saw all the wheels turning in her head. He saw how she put all the pieces together. She knew Orihime was his girlfriend and she also knew the baby inside her was his. He barely knew this lady, yet he still felt so exposed and uncomfortable. Now she knew why he had been asking her about babies. Those wheels must have also been turning in her head.

The woman just smiled at Orihime after recovering from shock she hid very well, and continued sifting through all the baby items in front of her. He was really appreciative that the woman acted as though she had never held a conversation with him before in her life.

Orihime's countenance slowly fell and her shoulders dropped a bit. She averted her gaze to the floor. She had an almost hurt expression on her face. "Y-you don't like them?" She was trying to hide her sadness. Unfortunately, at the moment, her hormones were kicking in, making her feel much worse.

"No, no, no, I love them," he said, walking over to her, cupping her face with his hands. "I just got distracted for a second is all." He kissed her forehead, instantly making her smile. He knew how to soothe her when she got upset over these things. Even though this type of dilemma was a small one, he still felt like a jerk. He cared too much for what people thought and it was obviously hurting Orihime, even if she didn't realize it yet.

"Let's go home because I just finished," he stated, grabbing her hand and walking toward the exit.

The kind woman stopped looking at the baby items and for a moment, looked after Ichigo and Orihime as they left the store. She was quite sad. She knew from their very first conversation that he was stressing over something and now she realized they had been talking about babies and their expenses for a reason.

She felt a pang in her chest. They wouldn't be able to enjoy life as a teenager should and they were just so young. She almost felt like she was watching one of her own sons go through this. It was odd. She could only imagine the trials they would go through as teen parents. She hoped and prayed they would be smart about their decisions.

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><p>All right, well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you think. Maybe you guys should start predicting things. ;) Although, I'm not quite sure that's really all that possible yet. Well, anyway. Thanks for reading!<p>

~Yono~


	10. Chapter X

Hey guys. Sorry for not updating in so long. I've been pretty busy and haven't had much motivation for this fic, but I am definitely going to finish it and it will be done soon anyway. This is a pretty short chapter, so it'll be a quick read. Sorry about that. Hope you enjoy!

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter X_

Mrs. Kawabata peered over the dozens of heads lining up behind cash registers. She desperately searched for the bright haired boy she loved to see so much. After coming face to face with his most drastic drama in life, she now understood why he had asked the questions he did and why he always acted a certain way when he asked them. She had not expected at all that this young man would be fathering a child in a very short amount of time. It just left her completely baffled. Someone so young should not have to take on the enormous responsibility of a life, but that is what he and his girlfriend had chosen, willingly or not.

She sighed. She couldn't see him anywhere. She was hoping to have given him the gift she bought for their baby. She held a bag full of toys, a blanket, and a stuffed caterpillar. She was sure the baby would love it and also that her parents would deeply appreciate it.

She walked over to one of the cashiers, passing many people because she did not have to buy anything. "Hello. I just wanted to know if…" she tried to recall Ichigo's name, but she could not remember. "… um, the bright orange haired boy that works here is working now or anytime soon."

The cashier stared at her with a bored look, obviously not enjoying scanning hundreds of items on a daily basis. "No, he's not working today."

"Oh… I see. Well, could you possibly tell me when he will be working and what hours?" she smiled hopefully.

"I'm not allowed to give you that information."

Her shoulders sagged. She felt defeated. "Alright, well, thank you anyway. Have a great day!"

The cashier nodded in return, evidently not happy enough to reciprocate her enthusiasm.

Ichigo grunted. "Why isn't there anything to eat in this house?" he muttered to himself, looking through the fridge. He decided to temporarily quench his hunger with a glass of water until Yuzu went grocery shopping later today.

He heard the front door open. "I'm home!" his father shouted.

"Hey."

"Hello there, son. Where are Yuzu and Karin?"

"They went school supply shopping and then grocery shopping. They left a few minutes ago, so they won't be back for a while."

"Ah, I see. Alright. It's just you and me then!"

_You and me then… _

Ichigo's heart went from a normal pace to outrageous one within a matter of seconds. He just realized no one was home but him and his father… the perfect opportunity to talk.

"Uh… so how was work?" Ichigo asked awkwardly.

"Eh… same old same old. Things have been kind of rough lately though," he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

Ichigo noticed how his father appeared to be stressed. To bring up the looming topic of Orihime's pregnancy seemed so much more difficult now.

"Oh… how?"

"I only have a few faithful patients left. The rest keep leaving me so that's why I'm helping out at the hospital and other clinics, but let's not talk about that! How are you enjoying your day off of work?"

"I've just been bored. Um… can I talk to you about something Dad?"

"Yes, of course. What's wrong?" Isshin asked, suddenly worried.

Ichigo noticed the deeper wrinkles in his father's face. All the stress from work was slowly killing his father and now Ichigo would not make it any better. He felt horrible for keeping something as important as this from his father. He was no better than Orihime when she had done the same.

They both sat down at the kitchen table opposite each other. Isshin never took his eyes off of Ichigo who kept looking down at the table as though he was ashamed of something. Isshin's concern rapidly grew the longer the silence between them stretched.

"Son, what's wrong? You are never like this."

"It's um… me and Orihime."

"Oh… well, I knew you guys broke up months ago. I could read it all over your face. You never told me what happened actually."

Ichigo looked up at his father. He found it somewhat amusing that Isshin knew even though he had never told him. He had no idea he was that obvious.

"We're back together now though."

Isshin's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Then why hasn't Orihime come over? She used to come here all the time. I actually really miss her."

Ichigo really appreciated his father's heartfelt words. He knew Isshin truly cared for Orihime as though she were another daughter and he knew that he had to sum up the courage to tell him what was really going on. Beating around the bush was continuing to tear him down and increase his anxiety.

"Well… it's because she…" Ichigo gulped.

Isshin patiently waited for his son to finish his thought, but instead Ichigo turned his face away, not even able to look at him. Now Isshin was genuinely scared.

"Is something wrong with her? Is she sick?" More silence. "Ichigo answer me!"

Ichigo flinched at his father's scream. He knew by not answering the question, he was just making Isshin feel more and more paranoid.

"No… she's not sick," he said, barely whispering.

Isshin relaxed a little. A disease would have been worse than any other news Ichigo could possibly tell him.

"Thank God… then what is it?"

Ichigo had no idea how terrifying it would be to tell the man who raised him that his girlfriend was pregnant with his child. Everything was about to change within a matter of seconds. He had no idea what lay ahead. He decided to at least look his father in the eye to deliver this news to him and when he did, he saw the distress and apprehension dancing across his eyes. He saw the worry and love he felt for his son and it broke Ichigo's heart.

"Orihime is…" He paused and took in a shaky breath, "…pregnant."

All the emotions he had seen on his father's face slowly faded into disappointment. Isshin sighed and put his hand to his face, shaking his head. His silence was killing Ichigo.

"I was so scared you were going to say that."

Ichigo didn't respond, ashamed to even reply.

He heard Isshin sigh again. "You know that this is going to change a lot of things, right Ichigo?"

Ichigo bleakly nodded in response, looking at the floor.

"And how far along is she?"

Ichigo's heart pounded in his ears. It was hard enough to say she was pregnant, let alone say she almost seven months pregnant.

He didn't answer right away.

"How far along is she, Ichigo?" Isshin's patience was beginning to run thin. He had to force himself to stay calm.

Ichigo heard the impatience in his father's voice. "She's almost seven months pregnant."

Isshin slammed his fist on the table and stood up, the chair skidding behind him and falling over. "What? And how long have you known she was pregnant?"

He never got into serious fights with his father. Isshin was only known for yelling ridiculous things which were never relevant to anyone. Isshin was barely ever serious, just being a typically jolly man. The fact that his father was screaming at him, shook him. He couldn't even look at him.

"For about three months…"

He noticed that Isshin was trying to control his rage, pacing back and forth in the kitchen and constantly opening his mouth as though he were about to say something and then closing it again.

Ichigo did not know how he was going to face his father now.

"You know Ichigo… what really makes me angry is that you have known this for three months and have not told me a thing. This is not something that you can take the liberty of hiding from your father for as long as you'd like. Within all that time, you, Orihime, and I could have been discussing extremely important things regarding the baby. Things that are going to have to be rushed now just because you were too scared to tell me… look at me!"

Ichigo looked into his father's cold eyes. They were blazing with anger and even what seemed like hurt. He felt like a child being reprimanded by his father this way. When was the last time his dad forced him to look at him? He realized then and there how immature he had been about this whole thing. His plan of action had been childish and idiotic.

"You and Orihime are both idiots, but especially you. I thought I raised you not to get a girl pregnant this early on in your life. I thought I raised you to use your darn head." He tapped the side of his own head for emphasis. "You guys are too young to be having sex in the first place!"

His father continued pacing back and forth, groaning out loud. He abruptly halted his pacing and turned to Ichigo. He threw his arms up in the air in exasperation. "How are you two going to go school? She'll only be able to stay for one semester and she won't be able to go back for years to be realistic. And you don't have a high enough paying job to raise a child and support Orihime as well. You aren't going to have time for yourself until the child is grown. How are you and her both going to equally spend time with the baby? Are you going to live together? Are you even going to have enough money for that? And what about when the baby is old enough to go to school… how are you going to pay for all those expenses? Do you even think you're mature enough to raise a child? Ichigo… did you ever think of any of these things before?"

Ichigo's mind was mangled with a million different thoughts and the questions his father had just yelled at him. Questions he didn't think he had the answers to. His father was really giving him a taste of reality. Did Orihime even know how much time and money went into a child? At that moment, she seemed just as naïve as himself. The more he thought about his circumstances and all, the angrier he became. How could him and Orihime had been so stupid and careless as to get pregnant? How had they gotten into this situation? Why had he allowed this to happen? He was angry at himself because he knew Orihime being pregnant was completely preventable and partially his fault. And after the mental beating he had just received, he didn't even want to listen to his father anymore.

"Whatever, just shut up Dad! Yes, I have thought about all those things!" he lied. "But somehow, Orihime and I are going to make this work whether you believe it or not! It's nice to know that my own father doesn't believe in me."

"No, I don't! Don't ever think you can believe in yourself because not a single one of us are strong enough on our own. Go ahead and live in your dream world, thinking you can do it, but sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to Ichigo! And from the way you're acting, your immaturity is going to be your downfall!"

Something within Ichigo knew his father was right, but he refused to let that bother him, so he pushed the feeling aside, quenching it. "Whatever. You're not right all the time. You know that, old man?"

"Yes, Ichigo. I do know that. I've had many experiences where I've had to learn that the hard way, but I am not speaking ignorantly now because I have had three children! And for the past ten years have even had to raise them on my own!"

"Whatever, old man. I've heard enough of what you've had to say." Ichigo started walking toward the front door, ready to escape from his overbearing father. He needed to think alone, but before he went outside, he turned toward Isshin to say his final words. With incredible vehemence, he shouted, "Congratulations on having your first granddaughter!" He slammed the door behind him.

* * *

><p>Alright, that's it for now. Tell me what you think!<p>

~Yono~


	11. Chapter XI

Hello everyone! This is, yet again, another short chapter, but I decided that shorter installments will be better from here on out because I find the story easier to work with that way. I don't have a lot of time lately and my laptop is also currently unusable, so I'd like to just get the story out to you as much as I can, so this is how I'm doing it. Please enjoy!

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter XI_

"I can't believe I'm already seven months pregnant," Orihime muttered, staring at her big belly in the mirror. She felt as though time was flying faster than it ever had at any other point in her life. Although she was excited for the birth of her child, she was beginning to grow somewhat anxious since the clock was ticking and life would change forever after just one day.

Lately, the feelings of loneliness and sadness kept engulfing her. Ichigo had told her about the conversation with his father. She hadn't expected it would turn out well, but she also did not think it would turn out so badly. According to Ichigo, he and his father were on speaking terms, but Isshin kept up a wall that had never been there before. She knew she would have to see Isshin eventually and it tore her apart to think that he might never treat her the same, but she was still grateful to him. He was offering to help them raise their daughter by taking care of certain expenses and his words toward Ichigo really were making her think about the baby's future. There were so many things they still needed to discuss and decide on: things she had not thought about until Isshin mentioned them.

Isshin was not her only issue though. Ichigo was the other one. She had not forgotten about the look he gave her in the supermarket in front of that woman. He had almost seemed horrified to have his pregnant girlfriend be acknowledged by a bystander. That observation hadn't escaped her notice. She didn't understand his feelings. What was going on in his head? Had she just been over thinking what she had seen? Had her eyes been playing tricks on her? She didn't know and she was too nervous to bring up the topic to Ichigo as well. She could not help but think he was embarrassed to walk around in public with her. She noticed how tense he would become when simply walking to the park. She felt the tension in his grip on her hand. She had been trying to ignore the gnawing ache at his potential shame of her, but it would always poke its way back inside her mind regardless.

Although she and Ichigo spent a lot of time together and she had Tatsuki and Rukia, she still felt a pang of loneliness day after day. She felt comfortable with Ichigo and although he would be physically beside her, she still felt alone because she knew he was embarrassed and would not tell her. And now that school would be starting in two days, all her friends were preparing for their first year of college while she was preparing for her first baby. Yes, she would be attending college with them, but only for the first semester. It would be practically impossible to attend school the second semester with a baby to care for. She was excited to have her baby, but ultimately, she felt alone in all of this. It was as though there was no one to help her because everyone was too wrapped up in their own business.

She knew she wouldn't be able to spend much time with her friends once her daughter was born. She would be giving up her carefree life to devote it to Akira.

Ichigo had chosen the name Akira. It meant bright. He had thought it was perfect because the two most important women in his life were bright and radiant. His mother had been the most smiley and jubilant person he had known and then he met Orihime who was even worse (in a good way), always giggling and sharing her happiness with others. He hoped Akira would be the same way.

Orihime smiled at Ichigo's choice for a name. She personally adored the name. She thought it sounded beautiful and very fitting for their little girl. But she really loved most of all how much thought Ichigo had put into it. She could read it all over his face how much he loved Akira. She could see that he wanted to protect her and raise her to be an honorable woman. His love for Akira made Orihime so happy, but underneath the love that shone from his eyes whenever he spoke about their daughter, was a sense of stress. It always dampened her happiness.

After being lost in a world of thoughts, Orihime came back to her senses. She had forgotten to fold her laundry. She fumbled over to the small laundry room in her apartment and began folding. She had already washed some of the cute baby clothes she had bought for Akira. She cooed at the sight of how small the little dresses were. It amazed her to realize that everyone starts out being so small!

Orihime sighed after her brief distraction. "I really wish you could talk to me Akira. I'd feel less lonely that way," she said, staring down at her round belly. The hopelessness of her wish made her feel ridiculous.

Akira kicked her.

Orihime laughed. She was happy to know her daughter heard her, regardless of the fact that she didn't understand her. It comforted her to know that her baby was responding to her. And as silly as it was, she didn't feel as lonely for a moment.

She dropped everything she was doing when she heard her doorbell ring. When she opened the door, there stood Ichigo. At the sight of him, all her sadness returned when she remembered his feelings of embarrassment or possibly even shame. She swallowed down the gloom she felt and managed a small smile. She didn't want him to suspect that she was upset. "Hello."

He greeted her with a kiss to the forehead and walked past her to raid her refrigerator. "I'm so hungry. I just got back from work and I really don't feel like going back home right now." His voice was muffled with his head in the fridge.

"Oh, well, help yourself!"

Ichigo grabbed a bag of chips from the pantry instead and followed her to the laundry room. "Want help?"

"No, there's no need. Don't worry about it."

Ichigo smiled when he saw all the cute baby clothes. "I'm excited to see her…" he said, fingering the soft pink cotton of one of Akira's blankets.

She looked at Ichigo, noticing how calm he seemed at the moment. Lately, these serene moments were scarce. "I know. Me too… so why didn't you want to go back home? Is your dad still giving you a hard time?"

Ichigo continued holding onto the blanket, as though it served as his comfort while he recollected his thoughts about his father. He sighed. "Well, we're definitely on speaking terms now, but he's still not over this. He probably never will be, but he's definitely a lot better than he was a week ago. But every time he talks to me, it's about you and the baby and about what needs to be done and it's starting to drive me a little crazy because I know that he's right. There's still so much that needs to be spoken about regarding the baby and it can't just be me and my dad talking about it. You need to be involved too, so I want you to come over sometime soon."

The thought made Orihime a bit nervous. She was scared of how Isshin would react when he saw her. Would he yell at her like he did Ichigo? Would he be sad to see the evidence? Either way, she had to face him. He was Akira's grandfather and was more than helping her. "Yeah, I know."

After a few moments of silence, Ichigo said, "You know… I was waiting for him to apologize to me for all the screaming he did, but he hasn't apologized and I doubt he will. But I'm glad he hasn't because I know he's right more than anyone right now. He really woke me up during that fight."

Ichigo placed the blanket back in its pile and looked back at Orihime. Even though she seemed to be okay, he could see the strain and uneasiness in the way she slightly wrinkled her forehead and the taut lines around her eyes. He hated seeing her like this, especially when she was trying to hide her stress. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong," she said. She walked out of the laundry room into the kitchen and started scooping ice cream into a bowl to keep herself busy and as normal-looking as possible, but Ichigo could see right through it. She didn't know why she was even bothering to hide her emotions from him.

Ichigo came up from behind her as she tried with all her muscle strength to get the insanely frozen ice cream out of its carton. He slid his hand down her arm and reached for the spoon. "Let me do it."

"No, it's okay. I can do it."

"Hime…"

She still kept trying to bash at the ice cream, hitting it hard to soften it up as much as she could but to no avail. She sighed, ceasing her pounding and surrendering to her weakness. She handed Ichigo the spoon in defeat. "Can you do it for me please?"

Ichigo almost smiled at her cute little pout, but he knew something was really bothering her for her to be acting this bizarre. He took the spoon and placed it on the counter and spun her by the shoulders so she was facing him. "What's wrong?"

He noticed how nervous she grew. She definitely didn't want to tell him what was on her mind. She looked away from him, looking at anything else interesting but his face. He waited patiently for her say something… anything.

"Ichigo?..."

"Yeah?"

"Are you…?"

"Am I what?"

"Embarrassed?"

"Embarrassed of what?" He had no idea where this was going.

"…of me."

Ichigo was bewildered. "Why would I ever be embarrassed of you?"

"Because… I'm pregnant and everyone can see that. Are you embarrassed to walk around with me?"

Ichigo's arms fell to his sides. He felt so guilty for what felt like being caught.

A long silence stretched between the two. "Are you?"

"Orihime… I'm sorry. I-"

"No, I just couldn't help but notice. I just wanted to make sure," she said, her voice choking.

Ichigo sighed in remorse at the new position he was in. Could life get any better right about now? "It's just really hard. Everyone I know looks at me differently now and being with you attracts even more attention, but I still do it anyway because I love you and I love Akira. It's just not easy," he begged.

Orihime didn't respond for a few moments. He painfully watched her as she tried to hold back her tears and choke down her sobs. He obviously confirmed her fears and he hated himself for it. He hated himself for even ever being embarrassed. "Hime, I'm embarrassed of myself for even getting us into this situation. It just sucks! We're only teenagers and everyone looks at us so differently… almost with a look of either pity or disgust and I hate it."

Ichigo watched as her misery became quiet frustration. She finally turned toward him. "Since when were you ever one to care about what people think?"

Ichigo was surprised by her question. She was right. When did he ever care about what people thought of him? This whole experience was changing him and not in a good way. He couldn't even believe himself. He felt as though he was at the lowest of his lows and his lovely girlfriend had to endure the pain with him.

He put his hand to his face and shook his head back and forth as if everything that was happening really wasn't. He didn't want to deal with all this stress. He felt as guilty as ever, but how he could possibly apologize for something like this?

"I don't know Orihime. I don't know."

"I know how it feels to have people looking at you, but I got over that a long time ago because it's both our faults that we're in this situation. I have to take on this responsibility and so do you. This just happens to be one of the consequences, but in the end, you aren't the one walking around with a big fat belly, so you can hide whenever you want."

Ichigo couldn't even look at her, feeling too ashamed. "I know. You're completely right."

"Think about it Ichigo. If you can't be around your pregnant girlfriend in public, what makes you think you'll be able to be around your daughter in public?" Now her tears were spilling. Orihime was surprised by her outbursts, but this wasn't only about her, but their daughter as well. This level of frustration and confidence in expressing it was somewhat new to her and she found herself wanting to defend the child in her womb. "I think… I think I can deal with you being embarrassed of me, but I can't deal with you being embarrassed of her, s-so when you really have a good head on your shoulders, then you can come near my daughter." That was the hardest thing Orihime ever had to say. She walked out of the kitchen and closed her bedroom door behind her leaving Ichigo completely stunned and desolate.

* * *

><p>I'm terribly sorry for the constant drama Ichigo and Orihime have to endure, but this is the process of having one's character refined. Everyone has to go through tough times.<p>

Tell me what you think. I'm curious!

~Yono~


	12. Chapter XII

Hello everyone! Sorry for taking forever. I finally have my laptop working again, so maybe the updates will be faster. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It's a bit slow, but necessary nonetheless.

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter XII_

"Hello. How are you?" Ichigo asked his current customer robotically.

The customer greeted him politely while shoving all the items toward Ichigo to scan. Ichigo scanned the products with the least bit of interest. Lately, he was going through the motions, just getting through each day and hating himself even more and more as time went on. It had already been a week and Orihime hadn't contacted him by any means and he knew that this was more than serious. Orihime had never been this way with him which made their situation hit home harder than ever. Not only did his father hate him, but now Orihime did too. Why did everything have to be so hard?

"Excuse me, sir? My change?"

Ichigo awoke from his reverie, blinking in surprise to see a stout balding man in front him. Apparently he had asked him something. He just didn't know what. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

The man huffed. "I need my change."

"Oh, sorry," he replied, handing the man his money. "Have a good day."

The man grunted in response, obviously not up for politeness after Ichigo's unprofessional behavior. Ichigo didn't really have the energy to retort after working the whole day and thankfully that was his last customer.

Ichigo heard some commotion from the far end of the shop and bobbing heads in the distance. _What the heck is going on?_

All of a sudden, a hair brush whizzed past his head, barely touching him as he dodged it. "What the hell? Who threw that?"

A woman came walking toward him, laughing at herself in embarrassment. "I'm sorry. That was me. I really didn't mean to almost hit your face! I was trying to get your attention since I don't know your name," she explained, blushing at her madness.

Ichigo stared at the woman bewildered as to why she would try to throw something at him. He recognized her to be the middle aged woman with two sons who spoke to him every chance she got. It was somewhat annoying, but he actually enjoyed her theatrics. She was a little like Orihime, always excited and doing normal things in abnormal ways. She threw a hair brush at him for crying out loud.

"Yoohoo!" she sounded, waving her hand in front of Ichigo's face. "Stop looking at me as if I have three heads."

"If you had three heads, I would run."

She huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "Well, I guess that's true," she muttered. "It's pretty late. Are you still working?"

"Uh… no. I just had my last customer unless you're here to buy something…" he said, looking for anything she was holding, but all she was holding was a gift bag.

She noticed that he was looking at the bag. "Oh, here! This is for you! Well... not for you, but- oh, just look inside."

Ichigo took the bag cautiously as if it would explode and peered inside. There were a few chew toys, a blanket, and a stuffed caterpillar. Ichigo was so surprised that a stranger would be so kind as do something like this. The woman's generosity touched Ichigo's heart, but he didn't know how to express it. "Uh… wow, thank you so much. I'm sure Akira's going to love it."

"Akira? Is that your girlfriend?"

Ichigo half-smiled, shaking his head. "No, that's our daughter's name."

"Aww, how sweet. I like that name a lot! When's she due?"

"Some time in November."

"Ahh, that isn't too far from now."

Ichigo sighed. "I know."

Mrs. Kawabata noticed his anxiousness. "So I've spoken to you twice before and I bought your baby a few gifts, yet I don't know your name. And if I did know your name, I wouldn't have to throw things at you to get your attention," she stated jokingly.

"Oh, um, my name is Kurosaki Ichigo."

"I'm Kawabata-san. Remember it."

"Don't worry. I won't be able to forget it," he joked. He began turning off the lights in his station and locking the register.

Noticing that he was getting ready to leave, she asked him quickly, "Do you mind if I have a chat with you? I mean, I know you probably look at me as just some weird creepy woman who keeps talking to you, but I want to help you and the baby's mother."

She had such a look of hope on her face that it was hard for Ichigo to reject the offer. It was also hard because Kawabata-san was one of the only people showing him kindness at all lately. She didn't look down at him. She didn't show any signs of pity or disgust either. "I guess… but I have to get home soon and it better be quick," he warned.

She ignored his rudeness. "You got it." She waited outside for him while he checked out with his boss and changed into a normal shirt.

"Don't you have anything else better to do than talk to some random teenager in a supermarket?"

She turned on Ichigo at his rude question. "I think it's worth giving my time to someone who needs it."

"How do you know I need it?"

She looked at him as though he was dumb. "I can just tell," she said. He didn't say anything. "Is that not a good enough answer for you Kurosaki?"

"It's not that… I guess my stress is written all over my face, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's partially it, but I think it's also because I have kids and one of them is just like you. I can read you like a book."

Ichigo chuckled. "You have to have skill for that," he joked.

She smiled. "I'm talking to you because I know that life is really hard for you right now."

He said nothing, not knowing how to respond to him. No stranger had ever gone out of his/her way to be there for him. He didn't really know how to approach this situation.

"And I just want to help you. It's understandable that you wouldn't want help from a stranger though. I just… want to do whatever I can."

"But how could you possibly help me?"

"I don't know. You tell me."

Ichigo debated telling this chaotic woman any of his problems. He was usually one to keep all life's issues to himself, but why was he finding it so hard to keep them in lately? Life was so difficult right now, that telling even a stranger his troubles was better than keeping it all bottled up. And for some reason, he trusted this woman. Even though he was taught never to trust a stranger, there was something about this woman that made him want to open up to her, even if cautiously. Her personality was like a mixture of Orihime and his mother. She was as kind and giving as his mother and as bubbly and clumsy as Orihime. Maybe that was a part of it too.

He waited for her to say something else, but when she didn't, he broke the silence. "I finally told my dad after seven months."

"Seven months? Why did you wait so long to tell him?"

"Well, I didn't even know until she was four and a half months pregnant, so technically I waited about three months to tell him."

"Why'd you find out so late?"

"Heh, that's a long story. But either way, I waited to tell my dad because I was scared beyond belief."

"You seem to be a big tough guy. It's hard to believe that a guy with a stern face would ever be scared," she joked. When he didn't laugh, she asked, "How did he react when you told him?"

She saw how his expression changed into one of a mixture of sadness and frustration. "Not too well. He told me how immature I was for not thinking about half the things that go into having a baby and for the fact that Orihime is having a baby to begin with. Orihime's my girlfriend, by the way, just saying… Anyway, I hated him at the moment, but when I really gave it some thought, I knew he was right, but I'm pretty sure he hates me now."

"No, he doesn't. Your father loves you to death. There is not a thing I wouldn't do for my children. Even if they disappointed me beyond belief, I can one-hundred percent confidently say that I could never hate either one of my children. So, get that dumb notion out of your head before it eats at you… Anyway, that's a sign of maturity. The fact that you acknowledge your father's reasoning and opinions to be true. But I agree with your father one-hundred percent. If I found out one of my sons got their girlfriend pregnant, I don't even know what I would do, but I would definitely make him own up to it. Are you doing that?" That question was really meant for him to think and evaluate himself on.

"No, I haven't been." He sighed. "Actually, a week ago, Orihime and I got into a fight."

"Why?"

"Because… because I'm an idiot. I was embarrassed to be with her around people basically because she was evidence of our poor decision. I'm not saying that Akira is a mistake. Akira is a blessing and I can't wait to meet her. I think there's a reason for all of this and one of those reasons has to be so that I become a better man, but I am definitely saying that she and I made a poor decision seven months ago. But anyway, she basically said she couldn't deal with me being embarrassed of Akira, so she doesn't want me anywhere near the baby until I have my head right… and probably nowhere near her either." He sighed, aggravated with himself. "I really miss her. I miss them both."

Kawabata-san nodded. "That's a good way to look at it. Hm… have you and Orihime made up yet?"

He looked down at the concrete sidewalk. "No. Things are easy now, but what are things going to be like after the baby comes? Life is going to be completely different and now I have to grow up really fast. I just… want to do what's best for my daughter and Orihime, but I know I haven't been doing that."

"So then what are you going to do about it?"

Now that Orihime wasn't speaking to him, he felt as if there was nothing to work for anymore. But he kept reminding himself that Akira would need him, so he continued working and trying to pull strength from that idea. He knew he had to make things up to Orihime, but how? How could he possibly do that in a situation like this? He was guilty as charged and he didn't know what to do.

He wanted to know how Orihime was doing. How the first week of college was treating her so far. He wondered if she was completely unbothered by the stares she was getting from college-age students. He saw how they all looked at her and it really made him angry. He always wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it since Orihime probably wouldn't want him to get involved. Seeing her in school was harder than he thought it would be. They didn't have many classes together, but he still saw her and every time he did, he felt a pain and regret too strong for him to hide. He wondered how she felt. She didn't show any signs of sadness and that made him feel even worse, even though he knew she was just trying to be strong.

He wondered if she liked the school like she hoped she would. She had to give up going to a prestigious university to go to a smaller college because she didn't want to waste her relatives' money considering she'd only be in college for one semester. He ached for her in that aspect. She had to put her ambitions on hold because Akira became number one in her life. He knew Akira had to become number one in his life as well. He felt so ridiculously immature for not having done that ages ago, but now he was determined to make that happen.

He never realized how immature he could really be until having to go through this. This was probably an even bigger wakeup call than finding out Orihime was pregnant. He hadn't realized how much one had to change when a child was on the way. He hadn't realized that he had to give up himself and all his selfish desires and instead pour all his energy into his child who would soon one day rely on him to care for her and love her. He was going to be Akira's foundation and he realized that no one is able to survive off of a weak foundation. He didn't want to be a weak foundation. A small innocent child cannot do anything on his or her own. He wanted to be that pillar of support for Orihime. He wanted to be the one Orihime and Akira relied on. He wanted to be a good father and he would show that to Orihime. He would show that to Akira. He wanted to show his father that he could be an honorable man and own up to his actions. He had never realized how juvenile he had been acting until now. The realization felt relieving, as though a weight had been lifted up off his shoulders. But now he had to endure the hard part: doing something about it.

Ichigo smiled, feeling so much better than he did before. "I don't know. I really don't know. All I know is that I have to prove to Orihime that I won't care what people think and that the welfare of her and the baby are more important than people's thoughts."

"And how are you going to do that?"

Ichigo looked at her, confused. "What do you mean? Didn't I just tell you I don't know?"

She laughed. "I know. I just wanted to get a reaction out of you."

Ichigo huffed. He was astounded at how easily this woman already knew how to push his buttons. She barely knew him, yet she did. Maybe she really could read him like a book.

"… but I've been thinking… what's the best thing I can do for my daughter? Not only now, but when she comes? There are so many things Orihime, my father, and I still have to talk about. We've barely sorted anything out. How can I be a good father to Akira when she's born? I just don't know."

Kawabata-san smiled. "Don't worry. You'll know the answer when you look into her precious little eyes."

* * *

><p>Ichigo heard a soft knock on his bedroom door. "Can I come in?" It was Isshin.<p>

Ichigo inhaled sharply, steeling himself for whatever attitude his father would throw at him now. He stared down at the comic book he was reading, annoyed that he was interrupted. "Yeah."

"Why did you get home so late?"

How was he supposed to tell his father he was venting to a woman who reminded him of his mother and Orihime in one? "Late shift is all," he lied.

"Yuzu left some dinner wrapped up in the fridge for you if you want it…"

Ichigo made a noise that signified he heard. Hopefully the man would leave if Ichigo just gave short responses. He didn't. In fact, he walked across the room and sat on Ichigo's bed. What the heck was the man doing?

"I've been thinking that Orihime needs to come over here soon. We've got a lot to talk about."

Ichigo's eyes went wide. "What? Aren't you the one who said she can't come over here because of Karin and Yuzu?"

Isshin sighed. "Yes, I am the one who said that, but we can't keep hiding something so drastic from our own two sisters. Yes, they're young, but I'm going to do all I can to prevent this from happening to them. They're eventually going to have to learn the truth anyway. They've seen the way we have been acting around each other and it hasn't gone unnoticed, you know. The other night Yuzu tiptoed into my room to see if I was asleep and I scared the crap out of her when I suddenly said I wasn't." Isshin laughed. "And then she asked me, with a wobbly little voice, if you and I hated each other. Of course I said no." He paused for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to word what he wanted to say. "I don't hate you Ichigo and I have a feeling you think I do." Ichigo looked away because he knew the look in his eyes would give away the fact that he really did think that. "I've just been angry. Angry at you. Angry at myself. But I realized that there is no going back, so there's no use in being so angry after all. I still love you, son, even though this has been a huge punch in the gut, but now you, Orihime, and I have to work together to make Akira's life as fruitful as possible." Then Isshin did something he hadn't in a while. He genuinely smiled at Ichigo. His eyes were full of warmth and love, but Ichigo noticed that the stress and hurt would probably always be there regardless. All negative feelings were overpowered by a father's love for his son.

Ichigo swallowed the lump in his throat at his father's display of affection. This was Isshin's way of apologizing to him and it was almost overbearing for Ichigo. For weeks his father had been treating him so distantly and cold, that Ichigo didn't even know how to respond to it. His father had never been that way, not even once, during his lifetime. His father's new behavior had baffled and confused him. It also scarred him deeply because Isshin was the main person he was relying on for Akira and it had worried him that he had been losing that. For once, he had been looking to his father for support and when he lost it, that reality cut deep. Ichigo had known there was no one else to blame but himself, but that still hadn't erased the feelings of guilt and sadness. The only thing he could do was fight back, so he treated his father the same way his father treated him: distant and cold. Ichigo didn't realize that both his and Isshin's actions would affect Karin and Yuzu. In his selfishness and need to redeem himself, he hadn't even thought about that. He had been so insensitive and felt terrible for it and now that his father was apologizing, he was finding it hard to swallow his pride and accept the apology even though he was just as guilty as Isshin, even more. Seeing his father so exposed and willingly open before him made him feel so odd, but just the fact that his father was apologizing to him from the bottom of his heart made Ichigo realize how proud he himself was being. How could he not accept this apology from his father? He could only imagine how hard it was for his dad to do this.

Next thing he knew he was hugging his father and repeating that he forgave him over and over. What started as "I forgive you" turned into "I'm so sorry." He felt like a little boy again and it wasn't a bad thing at all. It was nice to forget all about his troubles, even for one minute, and feel his strong father's arms around him… like he always used to. Maybe it was good that all of this happened to them because in that moment, he had never felt so close to his father in his life.

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><p>Alright, that's it for now. I really hope you guys liked it. Let me know what you think!<p>

~Yono~


	13. Chapter XIII

Hello everyone! Quick update and longer than usual. I had a blast writing this chapter. I wanted to do something silly, so I hope you guys don't mind that all too much. Well, either way, I really like this chapter. Lots happens! I really hope you enjoy reading it!

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><p><strong>Sacrificial Treasure<strong>

_Chapter XIII_

Ichigo tapped his pencil on his desk in annoyance. He was staring at these ridiculous Calculus problems on the board and barely listening to the professor for over forty-five minutes and it was frustrating him that he could barely answer two of the problems with confidence. It was too hard for him to concentrate in class when Orhime's big auburn head was right in front of him. He had spent the whole week trying to devise a plan, or just a way to apologize to her. He didn't just want to say sorry; he wanted to _really _do something for her. And the fact that he was working extra hours at the supermarket (to save more money for Akira) and had a ton of homework to do after starting school only two weeks ago, did not really help his dilemma. He hadn't even had a second to speak a word to Orihime the past two weeks. He knew the longer he waited, the worse the hurt he caused would become. He couldn't risk that for much longer.

He couldn't see Orihime's face from where he was sitting, but he could see that she was definitely busy and at work, furiously scribbling notes and important tips into her notebook. In between taking notes, she looked at the board and then the teacher, who was enrapturing her attention. He was always so amazed at how studious she was. She found every bit of knowledge so interesting. He was astounded by this fact and utterly confused at the same time. He smiled to himself. She never failed to amaze him.

Another ten minutes flew by while he was lost in his thoughts and the class was finally over. He couldn't take this anymore. Orihime was in about two of his classes and those were the two classes he was not doing so well in. It just made him realize more that he needed to get the show on the road.

While shoving his books and notebooks into his bag, he looked at Orihime's vacant seat. _Holy cow. She already zipped out the door. _She was avoiding him, wasn't she? Ichigo sighed. That hurt more than anything, but when he really thought about it, what else did he deserve? He deserved much worse than just her avoiding him. That was for sure.

He sat back down in his seat as students continued milling out of the room, trying to think of the day that lay ahead. All he could think about was the load of things he still had to do and thankfully, tomorrow would be his day off from work and no school. He could finally make things up to Orihime.

A group of three girls were whispering behind him.

"She must be, like, seven or eight months pregnant at the most," one of the girls said.

"Yeah, I agree. I wonder how many guys she's slept with. Honestly, to get pregnant so young makes her look like such a slut," another girl declared. She sounded like the leader of the bunch.

Ichigo pretended like he was still putting away his belongings, as though he hadn't heard a word, but in truth, his blood was boiling. He didn't want these girls to know he was listening just yet.

"Definitely. Who would be so stupid to have unprotected sex?"

"Well, Ame, sometimes it doesn't work," another girl added. She sounded mousy, as though scared to speak up.

"So? She's still pregnant, isn't she? It's almost gross to look at her. I doubt she'll make any friends here."

"Actually… I see her in the café sometimes and every time I'm there, she's always sitting with someone new. She seems like a really nice girl."

"Oh, shut up, Sachi. Nice, my rear end," Ame retorted.

"You shouldn't be so quick to judge, Ame. You have sex all the time," the other girl said.

Ichigo found it ridiculously obnoxious that they thought they were "whispering."

"Yeah, but I'm not pregnant, am I? So it's different!"

"Whatever you say," the girl surrendered.

"Her boyfriend probably left her to take care of that kid alone too or maybe he's just a gross old goon waiting for her in his house every day. Basically, she's a disgrace and I-"

Ichigo shoved his seat backward and it hit the floor hard and loud, startling Ame. He smirked, glad that it interrupted her. He didn't want to hear any more of her stupidity. He turned around and stormed toward her.

The closer he got, the more she shrunk back. She saw the anger and fury written all over his face. And on top of that, she looked completely confused along with the other girls. "W-what do you want?"

"What do I want?" he practically spat out. "To stop talking about someone you don't even know!"

"B-but look at her! You can't tell me you don't feel the same way we do."

The other girls looked away. They didn't agree with Ame in the slightest.

"I don't think your little friends agree with you and either do I. That's my girlfriend and my child you were just talking about and before being so quick to judge, maybe you should know more about her and the situation we are in! **You** are a million times worse than you ever _think_ she will be," he yelled.

Ame recovered from her fear and instead started to become angry. "I don't believe that you even know her. If she's your girlfriend and all, then why don't I ever see you guys talking to each other, huh? You're a liar."

Ichigo paused. How was he supposed to convince this girl that he was telling her the truth? "It isn't any of your business what's going on between me and her."

"Whatever. You aren't anyone to talk to me like this."

"Am I really not? Didn't I just tell you I'm her boyfriend and that the child she's carrying is my daughter? At least I know her." Ichigo shook his head. "Never mind that. You don't even know her. What are you? Twelve? Talking so immaturely behind someone's back… Orihime isn't the gross one. It's you." With that, he snatched his bag off the table and walked out the door.

Ame stood rooted to her place, completely shocked. He definitely knew her. He used her name and even said the baby was a girl. No one had ever chastised her the way he had. No one had ever embarrassed her the way he had. Not even her useless parents. She felt the hot tears burning at her eyes because of all the mixture of emotions she felt right now. She was so caught up in her rage, humiliation, and shock, that she hadn't even noticed when Sachi and Hana left the room. The only other person in the room was the professor who just shrugged his shoulders and continued drinking his coffee.

She'd never felt so abandoned.

* * *

><p>Ichigo barely touched his dinner plate full of food while his sisters and dad ate ravenously. He was too lost in thought about the confrontation that occurred earlier today, but more on his mind was what he was going to do to make it up to Orihime.<p>

Isshin noticed how lost in thought Ichigo was. "I can hear the wheels turning in your head from across the table, son," he laughed.

"Huh? Oh, sorry."

"Eat, Ichi! I don't make dinner every night so that you won't eat it!" Yuzu exclaimed, slapping his hand.

"What's wrong with you?" Karin asked.

"Nothing… just trying to figure out a way to apologize to Orihime…"

"Yeah, where has she been? What did you do this time, Ichigo?" Karin half-joked.

Ichigo glared at her. "I was stupid. I got all embarrassed around her because-" he stopped himself.

"Because…?"

Ichigo looked at his father in alarm, begging him for help with his eyes.

"Why would you be embarrassed around her, Ichi-ni?"

Isshin looked Ichigo square in the eye, completely serious. Ichigo knew that look. He was going to tell them. He felt like the worst role model for his sisters right now. He started pushing out his chair, ready to leave the kitchen, but his father stopped him. "No, Ichigo. If you're not going to tell them, then I will and you're going to sit and listen."

Yuzu and Karin both looked completely confused, looking between the two of them with hesitant anticipation. They had never seen their brother so nervous.

Ichigo slowly sat back down in his chair, not meeting his sisters' gazes. He didn't know how to act in this type of situation. What was he supposed to do?

"Dad, spit it out! You're killing me and Yuzu!"

Isshin sighed. "The reason Orihime hasn't been around is because…" Isshin paused a moment, not even sure how to say the words himself.

"She's pregnant," Ichigo interceded. He felt like he was being told the hard truth all over again. He wanted to protect his sisters from a harsh reality, but even he knew that withholding something so serious for too long would be impossible. His sisters deserved to know they were going to be aunts. They weren't as young as he felt they were. He still wanted to believe they were five years old, young and clueless. That would make things a whole lot easier, but they weren't and telling them this was not only difficult, but embarrassing in a way. Now his sisters knew he… he…

His declaration was met with stunned silence. Isshin looked at each of them to search their faces. Ichigo looked away not even wanting to know.

"Oh boy…" Karin sighed, stunned.

"Ichi-ni… um… how far along is she?" Yuzu asked, trying to add some chipper to her voice and clearly with forced effort.

"Seven and a half months," he mumbled.

They both started at Ichigo wide eyed, mouth hung open. "EHHH?" they both exclaimed.

"We're both sorry we waited so long to tell you this, girls. It's just that… I was extremely angry at your brother for a while and just wanted to hide the truth… hoping that I could forget about it, but I know that will never happen."

"Ichigo's an idiot," Karin said, folding her arms over her chest in a defiant manner.

"He sure is," Isshin agreed.

"Alright, alright. I get it guys. Yes, I am an idiot, but it happened and there's no going back now, okay? Just don't ever be idiots like me guys." He put his head in his hands, sighing. He didn't know that telling someone about this news again would drain him of all his energy.

Yuzu put her hand on his arm. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

Karin kept repeating "boy" under her breath.

"It's a girl," Ichigo smiled. "Her name's going to be Akira."

Yuzu jumped in delight. "Ohhhhh, I'm so happy! Now I can go make some cute dresses and hats!" Yuzu ran out of the room, already preparing herself for the task.

Karin grunted. "The least you could have done was make a boy." She shoved her chair back and started clearing up her dishes.

"Shut up, Karin! You could at least be a little happy!" She made some sort of noise in the back of her throat.

"Wow, Yuzu left the table without even bothering to clean up. She must be excited," Isshin laughed.

Ichigo sighed, trying to smile. At least Yuzu was happy about it. She was the first one to react in a positive way. That kind of relieved him of his stress a bit because lately he just couldn't deal with anything anymore.

"Son, I think I have the perfect idea of how you should apologize to Orihime." Ichigo stared at his father with a look of caution and uncertainty. What was this old man planning now? He had to admit that he was a little scared of whatever "idea" his father had in mind.

"And what is this idea of yours?..." he eyed him suspiciously.

Isshin chuckled and put his hand over his mouth like a schoolgirl. That just freaked Ichigo out.

"I don't know what you have up your sleeve old man, but it better be good!"

Ichigo followed his dad into his bedroom. Isshin rummaged in his closet for what felt like an hour and pulled something odd out of a cardboard box. Isshin held it at arms' length to show Ichigo.

Ichigo stared at the _thing_, completely puzzled. "What the heck do you want me to do with that thing?"

"Oh you know what I want you to do with this thing. If I could do it, you could do it too," Isshin winked and started laughing like a mad man at the look of horror on Ichigo's face.

Ichigo shook his head back and forth, utterly sickened at what his father was going to make him do.

* * *

><p>For the past two weeks, Orihime had been trying to keep her mind off of Ichigo. How did she do that? By keeping busy. Their fight could not have happened at a better time: two days before school started. She had had her two days to grieve over their situation and put it aside. Now that school had started, she decided to use homework as a means to distract herself. She even signed up for an extra class. More hours at school meant less hours at home in her lonely apartment and less time to think about her sad state.<p>

Whenever Ichigo came to mind, she felt the hurt and abandonment she had felt two weeks ago. She tried to look at things from his point of view and she really did truly understand him, but she knew his reasons weren't good enough excuses. If she could walk around with a big round belly and take the stares, so could he.

She knew he was being selfish. She knew he wasn't thinking about how she felt… well, at least until now, but it was hard not to miss him and the way he always wrapped his arms around her, noticed how big her belly was getting, and then turned his attention to Akira. She knew he would be an amazing father. She saw the love he had for his daughter shine through his eyes every time Akira was mentioned.

It was hard to stay mad at him when she pictured his handsome face. She always remembered that look in his eyes that told her how much he loved her. Just the thought made her melt inside. She missed him so much, it hurt. Every time she thought about him, a dull pain throbbed in her chest and grew stronger and more painful the longer she thought about him. She wanted to cry thinking about his lovely face and all the amazing things he had done for her. He'd never really messed up until now. She just wished he hadn't had to have mess up like this.

It was so difficult for her not to cave into her desires. She wanted to call him and tell him she forgave him, even without an apology. She wanted to tell him to come back and spend time with her. She wanted him to run his hands over her belly. She wanted to see that cute expression on his face every time Akira kicked. She just wanted to feel him again.

She didn't want to see him at school. That was too much. School was the only place that got her mind off of him. She hated walking into class and seeing him sitting in his chair all cute and alone. It took all of her willpower to stop herself from running over to him and just talking to him.

She took furious notes during lectures, but really, she felt as though Ichigo's eyes were burning holes into her back. She just pretended like he didn't even bother her and to her surprise, she wasn't doing too terrible a job at it. She kept reminding herself that she had done nothing wrong at all and that he definitely had. But that acknowledgement alone didn't make things easier at all.

But why hadn't he apologized to her? Did he not care? Did he just decide to leave her alone to raise this baby? She thought that by now he would have already done at least **something**, but he hadn't and that scared her. Was she just waiting for something that was never going to happen? If she was, she felt like such a fool. But this wasn't like Ichigo. She knew he loved her and Akira. One look in his eyes told her that much. Something was up, but she just didn't know what. At least she wanted to believe that.

Orihime sighed. "If I have to raise you on my own, then I will," she said, rubbing her midsection. Saying that made her feel great determination, but also great grief. She didn't want to believe that Ichigo would leave her to raise Akira on her own. That wasn't the man he had proven himself to be, right? Well, then again, how much of a man was he during this whole pregnancy?

Orihime walked over to her desk and started typing away at her computer. What better way to keep busy than write a twenty page research paper? Oh the joy.

After half an hour of going at it without stopping for rest, Orihime stopped to rub her temples. This was too stressful.

Her phone started ringing. She was too scared to look at it, fearing it was Ichigo or really _hoping _that it was Ichigo. She put her hand over her chest as though it would stop how fast her heart was beating, but when she looked at her phone it was really just an alarm she had scheduled to go off at this time. All the breath in her body left her, sagging in defeat. She couldn't help but think all hope was lost.

At least her phone reminded her that the final episode of her favorite show was on in five minutes. That lifted her spirits. She had been waiting for this episode to come out for the past three weeks and all the anticipation came rushing back. She would forget all about Ichigo for now and just relax. She would enjoy the adventures of Takasu Ryuugi and Aisaka Taiga. Oh, how she loved this show! It made her so happy.

She scurried over to the kitchen, grabbed a jar of peanut butter and a spoon, and threw herself onto the couch. If it hadn't been for that alarm she had set so long ago, she would have forgotten about this! And thankfully, Ichigo was temporarily forgotten.

* * *

><p>"Dad, I don't know if I can do this," Ichigo whispered.<p>

"Oh, be quiet. Yes, you can," Isshin chuckled.

"I don't know old man. This isn't what I had in mind as an apology. I'm not a goofball like you."

Isshin went from chuckling to dead silence. That caught Ichigo off guard.

"Listen, son. You said you wanted to make this up to her, right?"

"Yes…"

"Well, this is the perfect way to get over your embarrassment issues. Orihime and Akira are infinitely more important than how **you **feel. What happened to that amazing determination you always used to have?"

"I know. You're right. Thanks, Dad," he smiled.

"She'll love it! I know it!" Isshin yelled as he saw Ichigo off.

* * *

><p>Orihime was tearing up toward the end of the episode. Only one more minute until this commercial was over and she could finally enjoy the last twenty minutes of the show. Thank God they weren't airing a lot of commercials. She couldn't have thought of a better way to end her day.<p>

Wait… it was only seven o'clock. Orihime groaned. It felt like it was midnight. What was she going to do for the next few hours? She could go to the town's festival which would go into the rest of the weekend, but lately, all she wanted to do was stay home.

The doorbell rang and she had absolutely no idea who it could have been. All her friends were at the festival.

When she opened the door, a tall man stood there, his back to her. She couldn't tell who it was since the porch lights weren't on, but after a few moments of evaluation, she couldn't mistake that orange head of hair.

Her heart leapt into her throat and her mouth went dry. Why was here? Was he here to apologize? Oh, how she wished that were the case. But why was he turned around?

"Ichigo?" she heard her own voice shaking.

After a few seconds, he finally turned around. "Like my new wardrobe?" he blushed.

"What?..." she asked, confused. Her gaze trailed downward. She jumped back in shock. "What is that? Why are you wearing that… that thing?"

"Well, one, it was my dad's idea and two, this is my really crazy way of apologizing to you. I want you to know that if you can walk around with a pregnant belly, then so can I."

She smiled, tears in her eyes. Then she started laughing. Ichigo would never EVER do something like this. He would never put on a fake pregnant suit or do anything goofy in general. He was even blushing! She was so elated right now. The fact that he would put himself through this made her ridiculously happy, but also made her feel bad for him.

"Come on. Come inside and take that off. You look so silly."

"No." He grabbed both her hands and looked her in the eyes for the first time in weeks. "Why don't we go to the festival together? It doesn't end for another few hours… and no one knows I'm pregnant yet," he smiled.

"Did you already walk around town in that thing?"

He looked away, blushing again. "Yeah, you should have seen the looks I was getting. Amazingly, I wasn't that embarrassed to have people see me in it. I'm only embarrassed having **you** see me in it and it's so heavy. How do you women deal with pregnancy?"

She giggled and patted his cheek. "It's all worth it, so there's no need to ask, but I think you should take it off. I think I wouldn't be able to handle going to the festival with my 'pregnant' boyfriend."

"Really? You wouldn't be able to?" he asked jokingly.

"No, I can't handle it. You even have boobs!" she exclaimed, hitting the fake breasts.

"I know. I feel so awkward. I'll go slip it off now and you go get ready."

"Okay," she smiled.

She did her best to get ready as fast as she could. She was so excited to have Ichigo here that she was fumbling around like a nut. She put on a simple dress and a little makeup and practically sprinted back out to the living room.

"You are the best girlfriend in the world for letting me take that thing off."

"Girlfriend?" Her hope was renewed. Did this mean they were back together again? She hoped it was true.

"Yes, girlfriend," he said, puzzled. Then realization dawned on him. "What? Did you think I would never come back?" The look on her face confirmed that what he had just said was true. He couldn't have felt guiltier. He hadn't realized how much pain he had made her go through. He could see the stress in the lines on her face and the dark circles under her eyes now. He felt so low. This was all his fault.

He cupped his hands around her face and looked her straight in the eye. "I am never leaving you or Akira, Orihime. I just needed time to think about everything that had happened. It would have been shallow and just plain stupid if I had apologized the next day. Everything you said and all the advice I've been getting has really made me think a lot about what kind of a man I am and I've come up with really bad results, but I am so completely ready to change. Being away from you and the baby has made realize so many things too. I can't live without you two. You and Akira are blessings and I want the world to know it. Orihime… I am so terribly sorry. Will you forgive me?" He wiped away the tears that slipped down her cheeks with his thumbs.

She nodded. "I forgive you," she whispered.

He kissed her right on the lips in response. It felt so nice to do that again.

"… and I'm also sorry that I never directly told you I forgive you for holding back the truth for four and a half months back then. I just… didn't know how to deal with it. I forgave you a long time ago, I just… never said so. Wow, that felt really good to say," he smiled.

Orihime hugged him furiously in response. Little did Ichigo know that Orihime had been waiting for him to say that for the longest time.

She ended up missing the end of her show, but she was okay with that.

* * *

><p>As they walked hand in hand through the street vendors, looked at the pretty lights, and hung out with friends they had run into, Orihime felt no tension between them. She felt the ease in his grip on her hand and could even see that he was so at peace. He didn't seem to mind the stares they got. He didn't seem to care at all, not even when the college students they shared classes with gawked. He had definitely changed and she couldn't have asked for anything better.<p>

* * *

><p>Okay then! I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter as much as I did. Let me know what you think!<p>

~Yono~


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